There and Back Again
by Gazing on the Arabesque
Summary: Final part of the Nightmare of a Video Game series. Keiko gets sucked into Sonic the Hedgehog 2006... but there's a catch. Her brother Haru gets sucked in too! Neither of them know of the other's presence in the game. What will happen when they meet?
1. Sucked in x2

Keiko's POV

It was my brother's birthday, and my mom decided to get him an Xbox 360. Good thing she told me this beforehand; it gave me a pretty good idea of what to get him. I got him (you guessed it) Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, more commonly known as Sonic Next Gen. I really don't know why people hate this game. I mean, _sure_ it had a lot of glitches and they got annoying after a while, but all in all, it was a pretty good game. And, knowing my brother, he was definitely going to play it, even if it was a bad one. So this was what I got him… this, and relieving him from his obligation to wash dishes for me. He was overjoyed when he opened my mom's gift, but I couldn't help but be a little surprised at his reaction to mine. Something along the lines of… "This was the best thing you could think of, Keiko?"

And then I did something like… "WHAT?!?! I SPENT LIKE A QUARTER OF MY ALLOWANCE TO GET YOU THAT, NOW YOU DAMN WELL BETTER APPRECIATE IT!!"

Of course, my mom was the one to break the fight by saying, "Keiko, LANGUAGE! And Haru, that's a wonderful gift. The reason Keiko got that for you is because she thinks you'll really enjoy it. _Right_ Keiko?" And to that, all I could do was just smile and nod. So guess what? We went to play it… well I did. Haru wanted to open the rest of his presents first, but he wanted me to start the game. So the title screen appeared, but I forgot to plug in the controller, so I did that. By the time I did though, the title screen disappeared and this pretty-looking fire replaced it. But then it did the not-so-unexpected. It came out of the TV, grabbed me, and took me into the game. It felt hot as I fell through an infinite black void before landing, then immediately shivering. It was _snowing_. And I was wearing a sleeveless top and shorts (it _was_ in the middle of summer, after all). It was _cold_. I took a look at my surroundings, only to find out I was in some kind of base. Weird… Was it Eggman's? Well if it was, I never knew he was so anal about security. There were searchlights and _everything_. I hid behind a barrel and saw a bunch of robots shooting at… something. Whatever it was ran through them, destroying them as it passed them. It landed in front of a searchlight and, using the little light it provided, I identified it. He backed up and hid behind the barrel, standing right in front of me. There was a beeping noise as he stared at his watch.

"Transmission from HQ," said a voice from the watch. "There's an SOS coming from Dr. Eggman's base. Our last contact with our agent was twenty-six hours ago. We expect an immediate rescue, Shadow the Hedgehog." Shadow's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Understood," he said in a low voice. "Initiating the mission now." I decided it was time to make my entrance.

"Hi!" I whispered, almost making Shadow jump in the process.

"What are you doing here?!" he hissed at me. "How the hell did you get here?! I thought you said—"

"I thought so too," I replied. He sighed.

"Any ideas on what to do?"

"Take me with you?" He stared at me blankly.

"Other than that.

"Then… no. I've never played this game before." He cursed under his breath.

"Great…" He grabbed my hand and Chaos Controlled away.

--

Haru's POV

Today was officially the best birthday _ever_! Not only did I get a new video game console _and_ a new game, but Keiko actually agreed to play with me! And I didn't even have to beg or wash dishes for her or anything! Basically, I was in high spirits when I went to join my sister… that is, until I found out she wasn't there. I know what you're going to say: I should have asked my mom. Well I did, smarty-pants. Some help she was. She just said she thought Keiko was in my room. Well if Keiko wasn't here… then more for me! I wouldn't have to be stuck playing through Shadow's stupid stories… not that they're _that_ stupid though. At least they aren't as stupid as Sonic's stories. But no. On the back of the cover of the game, it said there was a new character… some Silver… So I thought I might start with him. Sometimes, I wonder what would have happened if I picked Shadow or Sonic's story instead. Would what happened when I tried playing Silver's story still happen? I guess there's no point in over-analyzing it. What's done is done… wait… you're still wondering what happened, right? Sigh… I guess I should start from the beginning then. I went up to my room and pressed the start button, but nothing happened. I pressed it again, but nothing happened. This Xbox 360 was jacked up. The controller didn't even work! The title screen faded away and this weird fire took its place. Not that this surprised me or anything. The opening movie would always play if you waited at the title screen for too long. What happened next was surprising… and scary… The flames zoomed forward, like they were zooming towards me. Not that that bugged me or anything. But then the flames… came into my room? I stepped back, ready for anything… ok, maybe not. Right about now, I was wondering how the flames didn't set off the smoke alarm. The flames wrapped themselves around me (it didn't feel hot or anything. Weird…) and pulled me towards the TV. I thought I was going to hit it, but I didn't. Instead, I fell. It felt like I was falling from a skyscraper, only one problem. I COULDN'T SEE THE GROUND!! I screamed (not like a girl, that's just plain weird) as I continued to fall. There was a flash of white light and I could see the ground. But I fell past it. Under me was an _inferno_. No kidding. I closed my eyes and awaited my fate, but then I suddenly couldn't feel my body. Was I dead? No way, if this were heaven, it would feel so much different. Another sensation overcame my body. Was I… floating? I opened my eyes, and the inferno was still there. _So why wasn't I falling?_ I looked up. A white anthropomorphic hedgehog with creepy-looking yellow eyes was frowning down at me. His palm, which had this weird glowing blue circle on it, was facing me. He slowly lifted his arm and I slowly rose. Don't get the wrong idea; I had no control over my body. In a few minutes, I was hovering a few feet above solid ground. The hedgehog closed his fingers and I fell to the ground with a thud. And the first thing out of my mouth…

"LAND!!" I attempted (and failed) to hug the ground. Boy, did I look stupid. "SOLID LAND!"

"Are you all right?" the hedgehog asked. I couldn't help but be a little creeped out.

"You're a _hedgehog_," I mumbled.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious." I studied his features. He was white with yellowish eyes and seemed to be constantly frowning. "I'm Silver." He stuck out his hand. But I didn't shake it.

"Th-That's impossible! You can't be a _hedgehog_, how are you a _hedgehog_?!"

"If you stop spazzing, then I'll tell you." All was quiet… then… "I don't know."

"WHAT?! How can you not know how you're a hedgehog?!"

"Well… maybe because I inherited the hedgehog genes from my parents? I don't know." This couldn't be happening. There was _no_ way I got sucked into a video game. I probably just fell asleep while waiting for Keiko and this was all just some crazy dream. Yeah… that seemed right. He sighed. "Actually I'm surprised to see someone else here. Life is a struggle and people live without hope. How did this happen?"

"No idea.

"It was a rhetorical question! Anyway, no one will answer me directly… But they always point to the flames." I looked back at the inferno and pointed to it.

"Those flames?"

"DO YOU SEE ANY OTHER FLAMES AROUND HERE?!" He sighed again. "They come from an eternal life form that we cannot truly defeat."

"Silver!" I heard a feminine voice call from behind. It came from an anthropomorphic purple cat, who seemed to be surrounded by flames.

"Her?" I asked, pointing to the kitty.

"Iblis isn't a she! It's an it!" Silver turned around and looked to where I was pointing. "Ok, _wow_. Really?" He then addressed the cat. "Blaze, what's wrong?"

"He's appeared again!"

"'He'?" I couldn't help asking. "I thought you said it was an 'it'."

"Oh whatever! He! It! Who the hell cares?!"

"So…" the cat broke in. "Who's your friend?"

"He's… wait, who are you?" I sighed.

"I'm Haru. I… was separated from my sister!" Not a lie. "And I'm looking for her."

"Come with us!" Blaze exclaimed. "We travel all over this city, so I'm sure you'll find her somewhere!"

"But Blaze—" Silver broke in.

"He's coming," Blaze told him firmly. "Come on! He's just like us! I'm sure he wants to reunite with his sister as much as we want to see Iblis defeated."

"I don't really see how they relate together…"

"Who cares? Come on Haru!" Then she took off and jumped on the next building. I stared as she leapt off into the distance.

"Thanks for leaving me behind…" I muttered to myself. Then Silver grabbed my arm and flew off into the distance… yes, he _flew_. This was getting weirder by the minute.

XX

**I'm extremely worried about this one. What if I slack off on Keiko's part and Haru's part totally outshines hers (which is what's probably going to happen)? What if Haru starts sounding like Keiko or Keiko starts sounding like Haru? PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THIS HAPPENS! Anyway, Keiko chapters will alternate with Haru chapters. So the next chapter will be a KEIKO chapter… which you'll expect next Friday. PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	2. Shadow: White Acropolis

**Here's the second chapter of Keiko's story. Enjoy!**

XX

Shadow ran through the base, pulling me behind him. I could have sworn we got caught in the searchlights at least five times, but nothing happened. It was really weird. Not to mention, Shadow kept destroying the searchlights. What was the point anyway? I couldn't help but be a little worried. I didn't know anything about this game. I just randomly bought it for my brother because it was a Sonic game. I had no idea what was going to happen. Could I still help Shadow the way I did in the previous games? It's not like I told him anything about his future when I got sucked in. But I still felt a little uneasy… like something bad was going to happen. Was Shadow going to die in this game like in SA2? Or was he supposed to battle with his own emotions and memories, like in Shadow the Hedgehog? "You've been unusually quiet," Shadow pointed out.

"I don't know what's going to happen…" I mused.

"So? It's not like you told us anything about our futures before."

"I don't know Shadow… I can't seem to shake off the feeling that something bad is going to happen…"

"You're just worrying too much."

"You're starting to sound like Rouge."

"Damn it." And then we were in silence. I was the one to break it.

"So who's the GUN agent you're supposed to save?"

"No idea. They wouldn't tell me. Whoever it is, they must be pretty weak to get caught by someone like Eggman." I frowned at him.

"That's pretty harsh. Not everyone's as strong as you."

"Yeah, but… come on. It's _Eggman_, for crying out loud. He's not that big of a deal."

"Well he seems to have gotten pretty paranoid, if there are searchlights everywhere. Looks like Ivo's finally taken a step in the right direction."

"Who?" Crap. I was trying to get used to calling him Eggman again, but there were still some habits I couldn't really shake off. Like calling him Ivo. Sometimes, it just slips out. Thanks to Maria, it's become a habit.

"Dr. Eggman." Shadow smirked.

"Ivo? Since when do you call him by his first name?" I grit my teeth together.

"You don't want to know." Then we ran into captured agent. She was the last person I expected to get captured by Ivo… er… Eggman: Rouge. She was holding this weird-looking, purple-glowing staff. A look of disbelief crossed her face.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said flatly. "Shadow, why you?" He took off running and Rouge followed us.

"It's a special request from the President," he replied. Rouge rolled her eyes.

"_Right_." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Hey, I thought you and Knuckles were—" I started, but Rouge cut me off.

"Don't, Keiko," she growled, glaring at me. "Don't even." Shadow smirked as he jumped into a car… with guns? He pulled me into the passenger seat and Rouge jumped into the back seat.

"Why are there so many searchlights?" Rouge asked. "Since when is Egghead so paranoid?"

"Beats me," Shadow replied. Before long, we reached a metal door. "It's locked," Shadow mused.

"No shit, genius," Rouge replied.

"Do you think there's a switch or something?" I asked. "Or maybe you just have to defeat all the enemies or destroy all the searchlights or something."

"Why don't you tell us?" Rouge asked.

"I don't know. I've never played this game before." Rouge sighed.

"Great."

"My sentiments exactly," Shadow replied. "Let's just destroy all the searchlights and defeat all the robots while looking for a switch." And we did just that. We defeated all the enemies, but it didn't do anything. We couldn't find a switch either, but destroying the searchlights seemed to do the trick. The door opened and we were free! We jumped out of the car and walked in silence for a few minutes.

"Don't you want to know what this is?" Rouge asked, breaking the silence. Shadow stopped dead in his tracks and turned around.

"My assignment is to rescue you," he said flatly. "Nothing more." Rouge sighed.

"With you, it's always business."

"For him, maybe," I added. "But I'm kind of curious. What's that glowing staff thingy?" She never got to answer, for three robots landed in front of us.

"It seems they don't want us to leave," Rouge mused.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious," I shot back. Shadow took a fighting stance.

"Let's get this over with," he said before attacking the robots head on. When he was done, he grabbed both our hands and ran forward. We soon got to this weird portal thing that sent us to a circular room with a large glowing map projected on a computer screen.

"Ah, Soleanna," Rouge sighed. "The city of water. It has a constitutional monarchy, you know. The primary industries are tourism and crafting precision machinery." I looked around the room. Hanging on the wall was a picture of a pretty red-headed girl. Shadow walked up to the picture to get a better view. "The current ruler is Princess Elise the third."

"Why does Eggman's base lead to a place like this?" Shadow asked no one in particular. Rouge shrugged.

"How should I know? I just followed my orders and retrieved the item."

"You never really explained what that is," I told her. She waved her hand dismissively.

"Anyway, I have a little favor to ask of you," she continued. "Could you escort me to the GUN rendezvous point?"

"Where's the rendezvous point?" Shadow asked. Rouge pointed to a specific area on the map.

"It's in the ancient castle of Soleanna in Kingdom Valley." Shadow nodded.

"All right. Let's go." He took off running and Rouge sprang into the air. I ran behind them, desperate to keep up.

XX

**I'm thinking of updating twice a week instead of once. Keiko's parts come out every Monday and Haru's parts come out every Friday. This way, the fic will be done faster. PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	3. Silver: Crisis City

**So here's Haru's first real chapter. Keiko chapters and Haru's chapters will alternate, and you'll be able to tell the difference by the "Silver" or "Shadow" at the beginning of the chapter title. Enjoy!**

XX

Silver was clutching my hand so hard, I thought it would break. For a tiny hedgehog, he sure was strong. Blaze was right behind us. "So…" Blaze started, trying to initiate conversation. "How old are you, Haru?"

"Eighteen," I replied absentmindedly. I was too busy looking at the burning city. What the hell happened here?!

"Oh, you're older than us," Silver mused.

"Is that supposed to be a surprise?" I asked. "I'm not _that_ much older than you, am I? How old are you?"

"Fourteen," they replied simultaneously. How nice. They were just as old as Keiko. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a building collapse.

"How did this happen?" I asked.

"I just asked the same thing two minutes ago," Silver replied, glaring at me. Blaze sighed.

"No one knows," she told me. "Silver, don't be so rough on him. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want any of this anyway. He just wants to find his sister."

"Yeah…" I agreed. We were left in silence for a few minutes. Suddenly, we reached a dead end. Silver glowed blue as he placed the palm of his hand on the ground. A car and two large pieces of smashed rock, all three glowing blue, floated up to us, giving us a path to higher ground. "Did you do that?" I asked Silver. He nodded at me and frowned like I was some kind of retard. "How?" He shrugged.

"It's easy," was all he said. There were these weird monster-like things on the road that attacked us as soon as they saw us. Blaze jumped around and spun like _crazy_, but she always managed to hit the monsters head on. Silver, on the other hand, would lift his hand, make cars, rocks, and crates glow blue, then somehow, I don't think I want to know how, make them crash into the monsters. And me? Well… Silver and Blaze would always defeat them before I could even get to them. And… that's basically what happened. We would jump through crashing highways and roads, run through buildings, and Silver would do the weird thing to make things float up to us if we were ever at a dead end. After a while, I saw this gigantic tornado… made of _fire_.

"Heads up, you two!" Blaze called. "Watch out for things flying out of the tornado!" I gulped nervously, trying to stick close to Silver, even though he was at least half my size. After we passed the tornado, we reached a dead end. I expected Silver to do the floaty thing again, but he didn't. Instead, a humongous… _thing_… rose from the inferno.

"What the hell is that?!" I yelled.

"That's Iblis!" Silver yelled back. It was huge. It looked like it was made entirely of rock, but what appeared to be lava covered it in some places. Oh, did I mention that it had four arms? It growled at us and Silver ran up to it. "Come on, you monster!" Iblis blew a flurry of fire at us, and Silver made some crates, cars, and rocks levitate and crash into him… it… whatever it/he/she was. After a few successful strikes, it sank back down into the inferno.

"Whoa…" I mumbled.

"Looks like we stopped it for now," Blaze told Silver.

"But it'll just rise up from the ashes again," Silver mumbled, a defeated expression on his face. He pounded his fist into a nearby wall. "What's the point of all this? It'll never end!" Blaze sighed.

"Calm down, Silver."

"Then tell me what we should do!" I decided it was time to interfere.

"Maybe it'll never end," I told them both. "Maybe, no matter how many times you defeat him/her/it, it'll keep coming back… but at least you aren't like the other people in this city. Silver, didn't you say that other people always point to the flames when you ask them why the world's like this?" He nodded. "They're afraid. It's only natural. But at least you two have the courage to stand up to this. Even though you keep having to fight Iblis, at least you're still alive. That's the only thing that matters, right?" Silver sighed.

"You're right… but how can we completely destroy Iblis?" Blaze closed her eyes in thought.

"By knowing the truth, of course," I heard someone say.

"Who said that?" Silver asked, looking around. I looked up and saw a black hedgehog. Shadow…?

"Up there," I told him, pointing up.

"Just as a flower comes from a seed," the hedgehog continued. "Or a chicken comes from an egg, everything has an origin." His voice was deep and sinister. Although what he said made sense, I still didn't trust him. "You need to find the being originally responsible for this catastrophe." Silver turned around to face the black hedgehog.

"Is that the answer to our problem?" he asked, a flash of hope running through his yellow eyes. "Tell me, do you know who it is?" The hedgehog stared down at us, and I could swear I saw a glint in his eye.

"Follow me," was all he said before taking off.

"Let's go," Silver told us.

"I don't think we should…" I mused.

"Why not?"

"I don't trust him. Something just doesn't seem right about him."

"You're just over thinking this," Blaze told me.

"No, I'm not!" I snapped back. I really didn't mean to yell. "How do you know he doesn't have some kind of ulterior motive?"

"We don't," she replied. "We're desperate, Haru. We don't have a choice."

"Besides," Silver continued. "If we listen to this guy and defeat Iblis, you'll be able to see your sister again!" I sighed. I didn't really have a choice, did I? We followed the black hedgehog into some kind of base.

"To fix this present timeline," he explained, "you need to change the past."

"That's impossible!" Silver objected. The black hedgehog smirked.

"With my help, you can, because I have the power to travel through time."

"No way!" What was Silver thinking? What if this guy was lying?

"In order to change the past, you must eliminate the individual who has awakened Iblis. The Iblis Trigger." Silver pondered this for some time.

"If I eliminate that guy, will our world be saved?" The hedgehog nodded.

"No!" I yelled. This guy was definitely getting on my nerves. "Don't listen to him! He's trying to trick you!" I don't know what made me say it. Maybe it was the similarity in personality between Silver and my sister. I tended to be a bit overprotective of her, so was I being overprotective of him too?

"Do you know that for sure?" Silver asked. I sighed and shook my head. "It's as Blaze said earlier, we don't have any other choice but to trust him."

"Fine…"

"The Day of Disaster…" the hedgehog continued. "Here are my records of this event. This was when Iblis was freed and his flames were released into the world." He pressed a button on a keyboard and the computer screen in front of us lit up. Pictures of some kind of city popped up on the screen. When I saw the blue sky in each of those pictures, I realized that we took everything for granted. People like Silver and Blaze had to struggle and cling to life while people like me just glide through it, as if nothing bad could ever happen. It just goes to show what a sucker punch in the face reality is. "And you have this person to blame." The black hedgehog pulled out a shiny, sparkly, spinning purple gem. Was that a… Chaos Emerald? Silver took the emerald and shut his eyes pensively. After a few seconds, his eyes shot back open.

"I see it!" he exclaimed. "So that blue hedgehog's the Iblis Trigger?" Blue hedgehog? He didn't mean… Sonic, did he?

"Blue hedgehog…" Blaze mused. Silver handed the emerald back to the black hedgehog. I desperately wanted to snatch it out of his hands. Something told me this guy was a villain in this game. And if you've played a lot of Sonic games, you should know that you can never trust a villain with Chaos Emeralds.

"I'll send us back in time to the point when the Iblis Trigger was alive," the black hedgehog told us. He lifted his hands and this weird swirly purple orb appeared in the middle. He separated his hands and the purple orb expanded, engulfing the room. My body felt light and tingly as everything went black. If this was a dream, I really hoped I would wake up soon…

XX

**So there's Haru's first real chapter. Keiko's next chapter is coming out on Monday. PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	4. Shadow: Kingdom Valley

**Oy, I updated later than usual today… Don't look at me like that!! I know it's a short chapter!! Not that much happens here, and I didn't bother to elaborate the level. So BACK OFF!! Now enjoy!**

XX

Shadow and Rouge were seriously overworking themselves. We sat on a bench in the middle of Soleanna's town square. Everything was so bright and blue… like Sonic! If I could, I would live here. Seriously. "All right, no more sightseeing!" Rouge announced. "We have to go now!" She dragged Shadow and me over to a gate. We passed through it and the color almost instantly changed from blue to green. I mean, EVERYTHING was green. Even the ruined buildings were covered in moss and vines and whatnot. We walked into one ruined building and stopped. "The former king of Soleanna used to reside in this castle," Rouge told us. Since when was she a walking talking encyclopedia? "But a major accident occurred ten years ago, and no one's lived here since." Shadow whirled around.

"Accident?" he repeated.

"I heard a prototype energy engine failed," Rouge continued, "which caused the accident. I think the name of the plan was—"

"The Solaris Project," a new voice said. We looked up and saw what appeared to be a flying ship. It lowered itself down to us, revealing none other than Dr. Ivo Robotnik.

"Ivo!" I found myself calling out to him. He seemed to falter for a minute, but ignored my outburst and continued talking.

"It was an ambitious project named after their eternal sun god," he continued.

"Doctor!" Rouge called, jumping in surprise.

"It's been a while Rouge, Shadow, Keiko," he addressed each of us. "Now if you'd be so kind as to hand back the Scepter of Darkness you took from me." He waved his hand and a bunch of robots landed around us. We were completely surrounded. One robot fired at us and we all jumped out of the way. Rouge stayed in the air, only to be knocked out of it by Ivo. She yelped in pain and surprise as she fell. She wasn't holding the Scepter; it was falling a few feet away from her. I heard Shadow mutter a few curses as he bolted for Rouge. I, in turn, went for the Scepter. Ivo would be sure to retrieve it soon enough if we left it alone. "No…!" he yelled. At first, I thought his sadistic side played through. I thought he wanted Rouge to suffer, but instead, he was yelling for the Scepter. I tripped and the Scepter landed a few feet in front of me. Waves of this strange purple energy emanated from it, and the robots surrounding us were immobilized. I quickly stood up and backed away. Shadow dropped Rouge and walked over to the glowing Scepter. He bent down to touch it, but gasped and quickly backed away.

"Shadow!" Rouge called.

"Wh-what's going on?" I stammered. A dark shadow shot up from the Scepter, and it immediately stopped glowing. It circled the air and Ivo looked like he had seen a ghost.

"It's no use!" he yelled. "Pull back! Pull back! Pull back!" His ship thing rose into the air and flew away.

"Thanks for ditching us!" I yelled after him. Suddenly, the robots surrounding us collapsed, one after the other, as if someone… or something… knocked them over like dominoes. The shadow rose into the air again, then plummeted down in front of Shadow. It seemed to disappear… that was before Shadow's shadow stretched and this dark cloud formed near its head. Shadow's shadow disappeared into the cloud, causing it to expand. It suddenly disappeared, leaving a black hedgehog that looked exactly like Shadow in its place. I tugged at Shadow's arm. "Shadow…?"

"What?!" Rouge gasped, jumping. "His shadow…" Shadow's lookalike lifted it head and laughed evilly.

"Oh, how ironic fate can be!" he said. He didn't seem to notice Rouge and me at all; he was just looking at Shadow. "I would never have believed I would be resurrected by _your_ shade!"

"Huh?!" I gasped.

"I thank you, Shadow the hedgehog!" he continued. He bowed to him, but I couldn't seem to shake off the feeling that something wasn't right. The real Shadow took a step back.

"Who are you?" he asked. "How do you know my name?" His lookalike took a few steps toward us, still hunched over, making him look like a zombie. I hid behind Shadow, hoping his lookalike would just leave us alone.

"I'm Mephiles," he told us. "Mephiles the Dark!" He continued to walk towards us, still hunched over. With every step he took towards us, we took a step back. "What? Did you forget me?" I tugged at Shadow's arm again.

"What's he talking about?" I asked.

"I…" Shadow mused. "I don't know…" Mephiles stopped in front of us, his eyes still fixed on the ground.

"I owe much to you, Shadow," he said. An eerie green eye rolled up to look to the side, and I jumped back to Rouge. He lifted his arm, and Shadow jumped back as well. "Oh yes." A small, dark purple orb appeared in his hand. His eyes narrowed at Shadow into a death glare. "What you gave to me, I now return to you!" The purple orb expanded slowly in his hand. "A one way ticket to oblivion!" The purple orb rose into the air, and it started expanding more rapidly. It engulfed us, and I began to feel light-headed. I heard Shadow gasp and Rouge scream in surprise. Within a few seconds, everything went black.

XX

**Yay for Mephiles… even though he creeps me out. I hate his eyes. THEY'RE SCARY!!!!!! Sooooooooooo yeah. PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	5. Silver: Sonic

**Ohhhh my god I'm SOOOO sorry for not updating at all last week!! To compensate, I have a nice long chapter chock full of emotional corniness for you! Enjoy!**

XX

The black void finally disappeared and I landed on solid gland. Ah, how good it felt to see the blue sky again! It looked like I landed in some kind of town square… but I couldn't find Silver or Blaze anywhere. "Silver?" I called out to no one in particular. "Blaze?" I sighed exasperatedly. "I don't believe this…" Now I was absolutely sure this was a dream. Why? Simple. I was talking to myself. And I usually don't do that in real life. Or maybe it was because I was dreaming about a Sonic game where everything's all corny and stupid and everyone voices their thoughts. "Where the hell am I anyway?" Unfortunately for me, someone was listening.

"You're in Soleanna, the city of water!" a high-pitched voice chirped. I whirled around to see a fox with two tails. What. The. Hell.

"You're a _fox_," I mumbled, pointing to him. The fox tapped his chin.

"Yeah… so?"

"With _two tails_." I repeat, what. The. Hell. To my surprise, the fox smiled.

"Yup! That's why they call me Tails!" Oh crud. Insert girly scream here… nope! Not today!

"So… how did you get two tails?"

"Oh, it was just a genetic mutation, and—" I listened for who knows how long to the kid. I was suddenly interrupted by another voice.

"Tails?" it said. I whirled around to see a blue hedgehog. Again, what. The. Hell.

"Hi Sonic!" Tails chirped, waving like a maniac. The blue hedgehog seemed to be holding a redhead in his arms… Don't look at me like that! I wasn't looking at her legs! Anyway, if you perverts are done mocking me, I can continue with the story. Sonic put her down and looked at us suspiciously.

"Don't worry, Elise," Sonic told her. "They're friends… at least the fox is."

"Oh," the girl sighed in relief.

"So who's he?" Sonic asked Tails.

"He's…" Tails started, and then smiled sheepishly. "Well, I never really got a chance to ask him about that, so…" He turned towards me and smiled. "Who are you?"

"I'm Haru," was all I said.

"Haru…" Sonic mused.

"That name sounds familiar…" Elise's face lit up as she gasped.

"Wait!" she said. She frowned as she stared at me. "You look familiar… have we met before?" I shrugged.

"I don't think so…" I replied.

"Anyway!" Sonic said. "Tails, can you go look for a place to hide Elise so Eggman won't find her?"

"Sure thing Sonic!" Tails agreed before running off, leaving us alone.

"So… where are you headed?" Sonic asked.

"I'm looking for someone," I replied. "A silver hedgehog and a purple cat."

"Sorry, haven't seen them." Suddenly, I heard another voice. It was high-pitched, slightly nasally, and annoying.

"I can't believe we haven't located Sonic yet!" it said. "Gee, I wonder where he went."

"What are you talking about?" I asked without really looking for who it was that said it. "He's right over—" Then…

"Haru, get out of the way!" Sonic picked up Elise and jumped out of the way of a flash of blue light. I looked up to see none other than Silver.

"Silver!" I gasped. "There you are! Where were you?"

"I've been looking for you," he said as he landed in front of us slowly.

"Thanks, I was looking—" He immediately cut me off.

"You're the Iblis Trigger!" Of course. He wasn't talking about me. He pointed an accusing finger to Sonic. "Your actions will condemn us all!"

"Who are you?" Sonic asked, shielding Elise.

"He's—" Silver cut me off again.

"My name is Silver." If you don't know who said that, then… well… that's really sad. Silver showed the back of his hand, where the blue circle thing started glowing. "For the future of the world, I will destroy you!" And then they fought. Silver would levitate things and make them fly into Sonic or he would just levitate Sonic and toss him around like a rag doll. After a while, Sonic was struggling to stand up. Instead of pummeling him some more, Silver bent down to him and smirked. "Hn, is this a joke? How could someone like you cause the destruction of our world?"

"What do you… mean…?" Sonic mumbled. If this were reality, Sonic would have passed out by now, if not died. Silver frowned and shook his head.

"It doesn't matter. For the sake of the future, the Iblis Trigger must be destroyed!"

"Silver, no!" I yelled.

"Stay out of this!" he yelled back.

"Do you honestly think you'll make the world a better place by killing him?! And even if he _is_ the Iblis Trigger, won't killing him just release him/her/it?!" Silver faltered for a minute, but before either of us could say anything else, Elise screamed.

"Elise?!" Sonic jerked his head up, only to see Elise get whisked away by this white ship thing. "Wait!!" He stood up and started running, but Silver stopped him.

"Don't you _dare_ turn your back on _me_!" Silver yelled. "It's time I finally put an end to this!"

"Did you listen to a word I just said?!" I yelled. Silver ignored me, as usual, and lifted his hand, ready to deliver the finishing blow, but a pink hedgehog slid in between Sonic and Silver.

"Stop!!" she screamed. Hmm… she was the same person looking for Sonic earlier. Silver's eyes widened in shock.

"Amy?" he whispered, his voice wavering slightly. "Get out of my way Amy! This is _my_ mission!" Pinkie glared at him.

"Absolutely not!" she objected.

"Finally," I muttered to myself. "Someone with some sense." Silver glared at me, but didn't say anything. Sonic stood up slowly behind her.

"Thanks Amy," he whispered. "I appreciate it." And then he ran off. Wow, for someone who just got beaten to a bloody pulp, he sure could run fast.

"Leave it to me." Pinkie smirked slightly. Even after he was gone, Pinkie still stood there with her legs and arms wide apart, looking like an utter retard. "The person you were looking for was Sonic?!" she yelled at Silver. He stared at the floor, his eyes a mixture of anger, confusion, and sadness. Pinkie's eyes suddenly widened. "Were you planning to kill him?" Silver's hand balled into a fist.

"He's responsible for destroying my world!" he yelled, though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself, rather than Pinkie.

"That's crazy!"

"My sentiments exactly," I added.

"Shut up!" Silver yelled to both of us.

"Sonic would never do that!" Pinkie continued.

"But it's true!" Silver argued. "In the near future, his actions will cause the devastation of my world! So I must!"

"No!" Her voice softened slightly. "I don't believe it… Even if that _was_ true… If I had to chose between the world and Sonic, I would choose Sonic!" She glared at him once before running off. Silver stepped forward as if to run after her, but decided against it. He stared at the ground, his eyes still holding that same mixed expression.

"Do you always have to be right?!" he yelled. After a few seconds, I realized that he was talking to me.

"Um…" I mumbled. I didn't know what to say. It's not like I understood anything he was going through right now. It must be pretty rough, having to choose between killing someone to save to world and not killing, but bearing the guilt of knowing that you could have done _something_ to help. Silver sighed.

"Do you know where Blaze is?"

"Actually, I was hoping you would."

"Fine. Let's go look for her then." And he ran off, and I followed. We searched for about an hour, but we couldn't find her anywhere. We stopped to rest near the beach. Silver stared out into the horizon, deep in thought. Meanwhile, I was trying to decide what to say to him, if I were to say anything at all.

"So this is where you are," said a voice from behind us. We both turned to see none other than Blaze. I don't know how, but I managed to pull together a smile for her. "I've been looking for you two." Blaze took a seat in between us. "What's wrong?" I looked to Silver expectantly. I still had no idea what to say.

"Well… uh… Blaze…" Silver mumbled. What was he getting all self conscious for?! Wasn't Blaze his best friend since childhood or something? "To kill someone to save the world… Is that really the right thing to do?" I decided to hear Blaze's explanation first before I butted in. To my surprise, she rolled her eyes.

"You're so naïve," she told him.

"Come on, Blaze!" I interjected. "That's not naïve at all! It's a tough decision!" I turned to Silver, and he gave me a small smile in thanks.

"You're just as naïve as he is." Was she my sister disguised as a cat or something? …of course not. If she were, she would have said something along the lines of, 'You're so immature! You're eighteen, grow up!' Blaze sighed. "Whether it's right or wrong, I can't really say…"

"My mom always says if we don't make decisions ourselves, someone will make them for us," I told them both. "Even if you two decide _not_ to kill Sonic, you can bet, one way or another, that Iblis will still be released into the world. If you _do_ decide to kill him, then maybe, just maybe, the future will be saved."

"Maybe?" Blaze asked. "Just maybe?"

"Something just doesn't seem right about that guy who sent us here…"

"It's not like we had much of a choice," Silver said quietly.

"I know, but—"

"All I know is if we don't take this chance," Blaze continued, "the future will remain exactly as it is." Silver nodded, determined. He slowly brought himself to his feet.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked.

"Since he's after Dr. Eggman, we'll sneak into his base!" Silver told us. He gave a light smirk. "Maybe we'll learn something new."

XX

**So basically I cut the whole Silver-Amy thing and went straight to the Silver-Sonic scene. Am I failing at making Haru seem like a brotherly type of guy? Am I making him sound too much like Keiko? TELL ME IN YOUR REVIEW!!**


	6. Shadow: Crisis City

**Oy. I finished this chapter last night, but I could only put it up today. Smart… Sorry for the late update!**

XX

The black void finally cleared up and we landed in what appeared to be the ruins of some city. Rouge stepped over to a broken window next to us. "What is this place?" she wondered out loud. Shadow and I followed suit.

"It seems we have been teleported to another location," Shadow mused. I felt knots in both my throat and stomach.

"What happened?" I whispered. Shadow and Rouge shrugged.

"Well, let's find out where we are," Rouge told us as she took off running. Shadow stayed behind, and I lagged with him.

"Something wrong Shadow?" I asked. He closed his eyes in deep thought.

"Mephiles…" he mused. "Who is he?"

"I think what you mean to say is _what_ is he."

"_Please_ tell me you know." I shook my head sadly, and he sighed.

"But we're going to see him again." Hope flickered through his eyes.

"Really?" I shrugged.

"Just a hunch." He sighed again, grabbed my hand and ran after Rouge. She led us into what appeared to be Ivo's base. Only there was one small difference… it was abandoned. To be honest, I was anxiously waiting for hoards of robots to attack us out of nowhere, but nothing came. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I liked his base better when there was actually someone there. Rouge messed around with the computer (wow. It still worked. Surprise, surprise.)

"I've pinpointed our location," Rouge told us. "It's…" She pressed a button and the screen flickered to life. "No! That's not possible!"

"What?" I asked. "What's not possible?!"

"We're still in the doctor's base! But how can that be?!" I paced around the room.

"Well, this place does look a lot like his base, a-and it seems to be deserted, and… WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?!?!"

"Calm down, Keiko," she said.

"So it's not _where_ we are…" Shadow mused. Rouge fumbled with the keyboard a bit more and gasped at her results. Shadow's eyes narrowed slightly. "It appears we've gone through time… doesn't it?"

"Yes…" Rouge replied. "Approximately 200 years… Maybe more… depending on when this database was last updated."

"WHAT?!" I screeched. They both shushed me immediately.

"Well at least we know we've arrived in the future," Rouge continued.

"How can you say that?!" I yelled at her. "How are we supposed to get back?!"

"I'm getting there! That means this Mephiles character has the power to control time."

"His power is very similar to my own Chaos Control," Shadow replied. "But…" We heard footsteps and immediately jerked our heads towards the door.

"We should get out of here," I whispered.

"No shit, Sherlock," Rouge replied. Shadow grabbed both our hands and jumped for the ceiling. We skipped through rooms until we heard three screams. We bolted for a room with yet another broken window. I couldn't help smiling as I saw Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. At least we weren't alone. "Well, look who's here!" Rouge called down to them. I waved and Shadow just crossed his arms and glared at them. "I didn't expect to see you guys."

"Rouge!" Tails called. "Shadow! Keiko!" Rouge waved.

"Hi! Long time no see!" Tails flew Sonic and Knuckles up to our level.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked. "How did you get here?" I laughed nervously.

"I'm not so sure…" I mumbled. Knuckles punched the air, frustrated.

"Come on!" he yelled. "Let's get out of here!" We all followed Rouge out of Ivo… Eggman's base, only to see a city engulfed in flames. I gasped in surprise and the twin knots in my stomach and throat returned.

"What happened?" I whispered.

"What's that?" Sonic asked.

"This is the distant future," Shadow explained, "far removed from our own timeline."

"The future?" Tails repeated, disbelief evident in his voice. "That means Eggman's machine can control time!" Sonic glared at no one in particular.

"Eggman's got some nerve dropping us here!" he muttered. Knuckles kicked a rock away.

"Now how can we get back to our own time?" he asked, staring at the crimson sky.

"You need a space-time rift," Shadow continued. "But this requires a lot of energy."

"I see," Sonic mumbled. "You mean using your Chaos Control will—"

"Yes, but that alone is insufficient." Sonic made a thumbs-up sign.

"Ok, Shadow. It looks like we need to work together." Shadow nodded once. And with that, we split up. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles went in one direction, and Shadow, Rouge, and I went in the other. We ran through the demolished streets and buildings, tackling these crazy-looking monsters while we were at it.

"How did this happen?" I whispered. "How could the future be like this?" I felt tears come to my eyes. "Who's responsible for this?!" Shadow and Rouge seemed to know these were rhetorical questions, so they didn't say anything. After a while, we finally found a green Chaos Emerald. Rouge cradled it in her hands and laughed.

"My precious Chaos Emerald," she cooed to it. "You are all so beautiful. Your mysterious brilliance…" I would have laughed at this, but the sight of the burning city was enough to depress anybody… well except for Rouge. Shadow turned his head away, as if he didn't want anything to do with Rouge at the moment. Not that I could blame him, really. She was acting like a complete moron. That was until we saw it. Omega, all rusty and worn down. "Omega! What's he doing here?" We ran up to him, and he didn't move. Shadow fumbled with him a little bit.

"It seems he's in standby mode," he whispered.

"But why?" I asked. We were silent for a few minutes. "Is it because of this city? Was he trying to escape?"

"What could have possibly happened to create this future?" Rouge asked, repeating the same question I had been asking for the past hour and a half. Shadow shook his head slowly, and I sighed. Suddenly, Rouge's watch beeped. She pressed a button on it. "Yes, this is Rouge." Pause. "Understood. We'll be there in a minute." She looked up to us. "It looks like Sonic and his friends have found something too. Let's go."

"But Omega—" I started, but she cut me off.

"It's not like we can do anything for him now."

"Yeah…" Shadow agreed, slowly walking away. Rouge followed him hesitantly, and I stayed behind with Omega for a few more seconds before following them.

XX

**Crap. I think I'm making Keiko sound like Haru now. PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	7. Silver: White Acropolis

**I'd just like to start off by saying YAY!! I GOT OVER 40 REVIEWS!! And that usually NEVER happens when I'm only seven chapters into a fic. So THANKS FOR REVIEWING!! Enjoy this next chapter!!**

XX

It was _freezing_. Why the _hell_ did Eggman have to have a base smack dab in the middle of the mountains?! I was going to get sick for sure… oh wait, this was a dream. Never mind! Anyway, Eggman's robots were standing guard everywhere, but Silver did his awesome, kick-butt telekinesis thing to totally _pwn_ them all. Then there were the annoying, pointless _searchlights_. Whenever we got caught in them, _nothing happened_. Do you have any idea how anticlimactic that is?!?! Aw, who cares? Silver and Blaze destroyed them just for kicks. And me? Well let's just say I reached black belt a _long_ time ago. And it actually came in handy. This team was pure _awesomeness_. When I wake up, I don't care what Keiko says. We're _definitely_ doing this story! But if this was a dream, then this may not be the real story… What if it was a complete rip off? What if it was extremely, nauseatingly _corny_, like Sonic Heroes? What if Silver was just another Shadow, but instead of overusing the word "damn," he'd overuse another uglier word? Due to Silver's telekinesis, Blaze's pyrokinesis, and my ka-ra-tay, we managed to get through the base fairly easily. However, when we did, there was nothing. No blue hedgehog (thank god), no gigantic, anticlimactic robots swooping down to kill us, and no Eggman. "Looks like we've arrived a little too late," Silver mused.

"You think?" I asked. Silver turned to glare at me, but just as he did so, the ground rumbled, and a gigantic robot loomed in front of us. Aha! I knew it was coming!

"What?!" Silver gasped. "Oh no!" So there was more robot bashing. No big deal, right? Maybe Eggman's going senile or something. After it was good and dead, we continued strolling through the base. There was something sparkly and blue lying on the ground, partially covered in snow. Silver picked it up.

"That's a Chaos Emerald," Blaze explained.

"What?!" I yelled. "How is that even possible?!" Blaze closed her eyes pensively.

"Keep your voice down," she warned me. "It's said this gem can transform your thoughts into power. Collect seven, and a miracle's supposed to happen."

"A miracle…" I mused. I sense some foreshadowing.

"Keep it as a lucky charm." Blaze walked away slowly, and Silver stared down at the Emerald.

"It transforms your thoughts…" he mused. "…into power… How does that work?"

"It allows you to teleport or something." It was my turn for an explanation. "I've heard of… people… who have control over space and time just by possessing one of these Emeralds."

"Space… and _time_?" I scratched the back of my head as I racked my brain for a better way to explain this.

"I'm not exactly sure how it works… but… all I know is that they use the words 'Chaos Control' to teleport."

"Maybe instead of teleporting, they just freeze time to move, and that's why it looks like they teleport." I gasped as I realized something totally scary.

"Mephiles! He has the power to control time!"

"Yeah… so?"

"He had a Chaos Emerald with him! A purple one!"

"Well it's good at least _one_ of our allies has one."

"He's _not_ our ally, Silver."

"Then what is he?" I couldn't come up with any comebacks for this one. Any logical ones, at least.

"I don't know… but he seems so… _sinister_… almost like he has some ulterior motive…"

"Like what?" We were silent for a few minutes.

"Sonic."

"Who?"

"The blue hedgehog. Maybe killing Sonic will help him achieve some goal of his." Silver closed his eyes as he pondered this.

"Hang on a second." He looked towards Blaze. "Blaze! Get over here! We need to talk to you!" She sighed as she ran over.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Do you have any doubts about Mephiles?" I asked. She closed her eyes pensively.

"Some…"

"Like what?"

"The blue hedgehog… I don't know, but… something just seems so… familiar… about him."

"He's not really all that bad. Sure, his voice is annoying—"

"And he should pay attention to Amy for _once_ in his life," Silver cut me off. I smirked at him.

"Ooh, it looks like _someone_ has a little crush!" He slapped my arm.

"Oh shut up!" he yelled.

"Well you _were_ all depressed when she left."

"Yeah… but… I've never seen anyone so _happy_. I mean, everyone I know is either deathly scared or extremely rude, but—"

"You talk like you've known her forever, but you've only known her for a few hours," Blaze pointed out.

"It wasn't a few _hours_, it was a few _days_! Mephiles sent us all to different times!" Blaze smirked lightly.

"Right… keep telling yourself that," she said, the smirk on her face unfading.

"After that little outburst in the middle of Soleanna, I wouldn't be surprised if she bears a long lasting grudge against you," I told him, patting him on the head. Silver groaned and glared straight ahead.

"You people suck."

XX

**I had to add a Haru-Silver conversation in there, or this chapter would be ridiculously short! I'm skipping all the Amy scenes, so that's why I'm rambling a lot more in Haru's chapters. PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	8. Shadow: Flame Core

**Sorry I updated late again. A lot of Keiko's chapters will show up on Tuesday. So expect it Tuesday, Monday, or maybe even Wednesday. But Haru's chapters will always be on Friday. As for Keiko's Chaos powers… as hard as this may be… PLEASE DISREGARD THEM!!!! Seriously, whenever I reread the first part of this series, I feel like banging my head against a wall. After all, I **_**did**_** write it about two years ago. I blew it. I made Keiko a total Mary Sue. -sob- Speaking of which…**

**Red Dragon Force 1 – I thought about your idea for the end, and… well… I was kind of hoping for a Keiko/Haru brother/sister moment there (Keiko hyperventilates when Sonic dies, Haru consoles), and dying and being brought back to life is considered Mary Sue-ish… well, mostly in Naruto fandom. I haven't heard of it here. But I can't help relating Sonic to Naruto, mostly because the characters are so alike (Sonic=Naruto, Amy=Sakura, Shadow=Sasuke, Silver=Neji, etc.). And… well… I cringe at Mary Sues (I cringe at my NoaVG fic and how I portrayed Keiko there… ugh…). So… there's a high possibility I won't go with your idea… Thanks for the suggestion though!**

**Well! I've rambled enough for now. On with the chapter!**

XX

I sat on the ground while Shadow paced back and forth and Rouge floated lazily in the air, tossing the green Emerald from hand to hand. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," I told her, as I ripped a bit of dead grass from the ground and tossed it aside.

"Why not?" she asked. Shadow stopped pacing and shut his eyes.

"What if one of those things that look a lot like Black Arms comes and takes it?" Shadow asked quietly. Rouge suddenly fell silent.

"That would be bad," she finally concluded. We were silent for a few minutes, and, as always, I was the one to break it.

"So…" I mumbled. "Have you and Knuckles started going out yet?" I saw Shadow smirk out of the corner of my eye and Rouge glared at me.

"If you value your life, you'll shut up." I stuck my tongue out at her, and that's when Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles arrived. "You guys are so slow." Rouge flashed the Chaos Emerald at them. "Look!" Tails jumped up and down.

"A Chaos Emerald!" he exclaimed. "You've already found one!" Rouge landed and tossed the Emerald up and down.

"Well, I may not look it, but I'm a real treasure hunter… unlike a certain _echidna_ I know!" Knuckles ran up to her, glaring.

"What?!" he half-yelled. "Hmph!" He turned away from her, giving her the cold shoulder.

"Have you guys discovered anything?" Shadow asked.

"Well…" Tails mumbled. "We found a signal saying there's a Chaos Emerald here, but…" He pointed to the dark forest in front of us and the volcano looming in the background.

"You _mean_ we have to go through _there_?!" Rouge complained.

"If you don't like it, you can stay here," Knuckles snapped, his glare unfading.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me!" she shot back. Shadow sighed. "What?"

"You two sound like an old married couple," he whispered.

"What?!" they yelled simultaneously. I instantly cracked up.

"Aw, how cute!" I squealed. "Knuckles left on the sinking ship, Rouge on the life boat below, neither one willing to leave the other. They're separated, Rouge floating back to safety and Knuckles left to drown." I put a hand over my heart and sniffled mockingly. "So beautiful!" They all simultaneously blinked. "What? You've never heard of the Titanic?" They shook their heads. "The 'unsinkable' ship and… Celine Dion? 'My Heart Will Go On'?" They shook their heads again. "Oh… movie from a different world… right… sorry…" Shadow sighed impatiently.

"Can we go already?" he asked. Sonic ran ahead of him.

"Don't be late," he said, pointing at him and taking off.

"Same to you." I don't know what their point was, because we traveled together for the most part… well, unless you count Shadow and Sonic constantly trying to outrun each other, Knuckles and Rouge arguing for every small thing, and me hanging onto Tails' legs as he flew. After a while, Sonic made a not-so-brilliant suggestion to jump into the volcano… which was _hot_. From one extreme climate to the next. Go figure. The most frustrating room was the one with the weird orb thingies that you (Knuckles and Rouge) had to attack to light up. They kept clawing each other, and it took at least an hour to get out of that room. How frustrating. At the end, we found ourselves in a chamber filled with molten lava. Floating above was a cyan Chaos Emerald.

"I found a Chaos Emerald!" Rouge exclaimed as she flew up to it.

"Don't touch it!" Shadow snapped.

"Rouge, it's a trap!" I called.

"Look out!" Knuckles called. Rouge narrowly avoided the shot of… fire… flying towards her. Her landing was very… awkward… She fell backwards… right into Knuckles (smooth). No one bothered to point out this awkward situation, for a large dinosaur-like thing covered in flames rose above.

"Wh-what is that?" I stuttered.

"All of you, stay back!" Sonic yelled.

"We'll handle this!" Shadow whispered. And with that, they jumped for the monster thing, attacking it with all their might. After several successful hits, it sank back into the fiery abyss. Rouge tossed Sonic and Shadow the Chaos Emeralds, and they nodded to each other.

"Chaos Control!" they simultaneously shouted, holding the Emeralds in the air. There was a flash of bright white light, and a purplish-blue orb appeared where their hands were. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles jumped into it automatically. Rouge flew up to it slowly.

"Let's go," she whispered.

"You two go," Shadow mumbled. "I'll be there in a minute."

"But—" I protested. He closed his eyes pensively.

"I'll be fine." Rouge and I exchanged worried glances and we both jumped into the portal. I couldn't seem to shake off the bad feeling I had about Shadow's decision.

XX

**Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh my Keiko updates are getting slower and slower!!!!!!! I'm not exactly sure when, but I can guarantee that the Keiko chapters will come once a week **_**before**_** Friday. Haru's chapters will stay on Friday. PLEASE REVIEW!!!**


	9. Silver: Soleanna

**Wow, I haven't updated this in AGES!!!! My excuse? Well… um… I was calmly treading the path of life when an old lady just… oh forget it. There's no point in going all Kakashi on you readers. I dropped the ball. Sorry… This chapter's going to be really short, because the next Silver level is the train one where Keiko and Haru are supposed to meet. So if you're still here… enjoy?**

XX

Silver and Blaze had slowed to a light jog once we got out of the mountain. I could actually keep up with them without sprinting now. I guess cross country really paid off. We were back in Soleanna. Silver and Blaze seemed to get over the whole blue sky and no flames thing, but I couldn't get it out of my head. Silver and Blaze had a noble goal: they just wanted to save their devastated world. Their methods, however, were questionable. I still couldn't understand how they could just take advice from some random stranger/Shadow lookalike and try to wipe out the shining beacon of hope this world has… ok, that sounded really corny. Basically, how could they want to save the world by killing Sonic? Wasn't Sonic already doing all the saving? What did he have to do with Iblis?

We jogged through the streets lazily. "So, where to now?" Silver asked Blaze.

"No idea," she replied. "Let's just see if anyone has any information on where the blue hedgehog is." I couldn't help but notice how Mephiles was standing all by his lonesome in the middle of the street.

"I hope you're not planning to ask Mephiles," I told them.

"Why?" Silver asked. I pointed to Mephiles.

"There he is," I replied. Silver and Blaze stopped in my tracks, and I ran right into Blaze. Smooth. Mephiles appeared to be deep in thought, and it didn't look like he wanted anyone disturbing him. "Let's go," I whispered to them. I turned to walk away, but Silver grabbed the back of my (sweaty) shirt and pulled me back.

"Mephiles…" he mumbled. Mephiles didn't even look up. Silver looked to Blaze and she nodded, silent agreement in their eyes. Silver cast me a withering look before looking back to Mephiles. "Tell me… who is the Iblis trigger?" Silver paused, waiting for an answer, but there was none. "Why does he want to destroy the world?" Silver looked distraught, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. I knew that as far as both of us could see, Sonic really didn't mean the world any harm. Blaze's eyes were fixed on the floor, as if she didn't want to be involved in any of this.

"Why does that matter to you?" Mephiles retorted, failing to meet our gaze.

"Why shouldn't it?" I shot back. I seriously wanted to kick Mephiles's ass right now. Mephiles ignored me.

"Unless you complete your task," he continued, "your future will remain the same… forever…"

"I wish to challenge you," I argued. "Sonic can't be the Iblis trigger. He's doing everything _but_ try to destroy the world."

"How would you know?" Mephiles asked, a scary glint in his eye. I paused, looking for a logical comeback.

"I just do!" I finally yelled. I sighed, exasperated. "Isn't there some other way to save the future? Something that _doesn't_ involve killing Sonic?" Mephiles chose to ignore me. Again.

"He's currently at the terminal station," he said, more to Silver and Blaze than to me. "It's now or never if you want this." He stepped back, and then walked away. Blaze stepped forward a few feet and jerked her head, signaling for Silver to follow. Silver followed her slowly.

"Wait!" I yelled. They both turned to stare at me. "Don't you want to talk about this, or at least _think_ about this first?!" Blaze closed her eyes pensively.

"I'm sorry, Haru," she whispered. "No…" And then she broke into a run. Silver tossed me an apologetic look, and then followed her. I wanted to follow, but my feet wouldn't move. After a few minutes, Silver came running back.

"Aren't you coming?" he asked. I hung my head, unable to answer. "Haru?" A few more minutes, and Blaze came running back.

"Silver?" she called. "Haru? Come on, hurry up! We're going to miss him!" And with that, she ran off. Silver's expression softened slightly.

"Come on," he whispered as he followed her. I sighed.

"I have a bad feeling about this…"

XX

**Oh dang, that was short. Soooorrrrryyyy!!!!!!!!! The good news is that the train level's next! The bad news is that I KIND OF went a little too far ahead with Silver's story and I need Shadow's story to catch up. So it'll be at least four more chapters until the big confrontation. PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	10. Shadow: Tropical Jungle

**Waaah I forgot to update yesterday. Sorry. So, to those who are still here, enjoy!**

XX

I dropped out of the blue portal. The green Chaos Emerald fell to the ground with a thud, and Rouge followed it... but no Shadow. "Shadow?" she called. "Shadow!" I felt my heart thudding against my chest as the painful truth sank in: Shadow didn't make it in time.

"Oh my god…" I whispered as Rouge picked up the Chaos Emerald. "Shadow…"

"He doesn't have a Chaos Emerald anymore…" she said quietly.

"How can you say that so calmly?!" I yelled, unable to control my anger. "Shadow's stranded in the future, and he can't get back!" She dropped the Chaos Emerald and shook me by the shoulders. I thought she was going to yell at me to calm down, but she said something completely different.

"Keiko, _try_ to remember!" she yelled. "Is there a way to save Shadow? How does he get back?!" I jerked away from her.

"I don't know! I've never played the game before!"

"Haven't you looked it up?!"

"No! I just bought it for my brother because I knew he'd like it!"

"Just like that? Without even seeing what it was about?"

"It doesn't matter what it's about! He'll play any Sonic game he can get his hands on!" I sighed. "We're getting way off topic here."

"Yeah…" I bent down slowly to pick up the Chaos Emerald and, surprisingly, Rouge didn't stop me. Suddenly her watch beeped.

"Agent Rouge?" said a voice on the other line. "Report your status immediately. Have you retrieved the Scepter of Darkness?" How could I be so stupid?! I should have at least spoiled this game for myself, like I do with all the others. Now Rouge failed her GUN mission and Shadow was stranded in the middle of nowhere.

"Well…" Rouge said uncertainly. "I'll provide a full report shortly. Right now, I have a priority situation to deal with." She winked at me. "I need to contact E-123 Omega immediately." She then threw me a look that read something along the lines of, "Shut up, we still have work to do." I couldn't help smiling. There was still a way to save Shadow!

"He's in the forest," said the man on the other line. "You can probably catch him if you hurry." I couldn't contain my excitement anymore. I grabbed Rouge's wrist.

"Thank you!" I yelled into her watch, earning a glare from her.

"Um…" the man replied. "You're welcome?"

--

Forest levels are usually my specialty, but this was ridiculous. There was no straightforward path to follow, and every time we moved, it felt like we were running in circles. As if that weren't enough, it was so humid, and we were both sweating buckets. I wiped some sweat off my forehead. "Ugh, this is hopeless!" I yelled to no one in particular. "We're going around in circles! Are you sure you know where you're going?!"

"You know, no one asked you to come, Keiko," Rouge snapped back, glaring at me. I glared right back at her.

"Oh yeah?" I shot back. "I _do_ recall someone saying, 'You're good at forest levels, so this should be pretty easy.' Well how was I supposed to know there was no straightforward path?! And don't you know this place better than I do?!"

"I said I've been to Soleanna on a few occasions, not that I knew it like the back of my hand! Well, Miss I'm-so-good-at-video-games-I-can-do-anything, shouldn't _you_ know what to do?!"

"How am I supposed to know?! I've never played this game before! I've never even heard of it until I had to buy my brother a birthday present!"

"But you said yourself that all the games in this series are the same!"

"I said _generally_ the same, not _exactly_ the same!" This went on for a while. It seemed like forever, but we finally found Omega. He took a few steps towards us.

"This is a _charming_ little place," Rouge said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She waved up at him. "Hi. Long time no see." He leaned down on us.

"ROUGE THE BAT," he greeted in his robotic monotone. "KEIKO THE HUMAN."

"Hi Omega!" I greeted. Rouge opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off, still mad at her. "Listen, we need your help. There's this evil thing, Mephiles, who looks exactly like Shadow—"

"He stole Shadow's shadow to form his body, so no surprise there," Rouge cut me off. I glared at her.

"Anyway, he sent us to the distant future… about two hundred years into the future. We managed to get back all right, but Shadow stayed back for something, and now he can't get back." I pulled out the Chaos Emerald. "Also, he doesn't have a Chaos Emerald with him, so he's screwed."

"Yeah…" Rouge agreed. "What she said." Omega nodded once.

"SITUATION UNDERSTOOD," he said. "WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO DO?" Rouge snatched the Chaos Emerald away from me and held it out to Omega.

"Take this and deliver it to Shadow," she replied. I frowned at her quizzically. How was that supposed to help? Omega didn't question the logic and took the Chaos Emerald from Rouge. A slot appeared out of his… chest? He placed the Emerald gently in the slot and it immediately shot back in.

"SYSTEM REACTIVATION COUNTDOWN INITIATED." He lifted his arms, and then dropped them by his side. "BACK UP POWER SOURCE AND SPARE MAGAZINES SECURED" I couldn't help smiling at him. Who knew a robot liked to read magazines? "COMMAND PROGRAM PRIORITY CHANGED. NEW MISSION: SHADOW SUPPORT. EXTERNAL ACCESS NO LONGER PERMITTED. CONFIRMED."

"We're counting on you," Rouge told him seriously.

"Good luck," I whispered. He turned and walked away without a word. Rouge and I both sighed simultaneously. "I hope this works," I whispered.

"Yeah…" she mumbled.

XX

**Whew. Now that I think about it now, I think I can do Haru's chapter next. The confrontation is near! On another note, I got more reviews for this fic than I did for Root After Another, and, if this continues, by the end, I'll have more reviews for this one than I do for Past and Present and The Nightmare of a Video Game. Thanks for reviewing! …that doesn't mean you get to stop now, though. PLEASE KEEP REVIEWING!!**


	11. Silver and Shadow: Radical Train

**Hi… I dropped the ball on this fic again… Sorry… Speaking of dropping the ball, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Well, belated anyway. Anyway, I was having trouble contemplating how to write this level, and I finally figured out how! I'm writing the Silver and Shadow parts in the same chapter! THANK YOU REDDRAGONFORCE1!!!!! Well enjoy your long-awaited chapter!**

XX

_Keiko's POV:_

I bounced on my toes nervously. "Ugh…" I groaned. "Where _are_ they?"

"Keiko, we gave the Emerald to Omega half an hour ago," Rouge reminded me for the millionth time that day. "Of course they're going to take a long time." I sighed.

"Can we at least _look_ for them? After all, they might be looking for us." Rouge shrugged.

"Fine by me." And so we looked. We were in another part of Soleanna (I think that fat guy we asked for directions called it "New City"), in some kind of weapons bed. Rouge flew up and I climbed on the roof of one building. I gasped as I finally saw the familiar black and red quills and bright red metal. _Shadow and Omega_.

"Rouge!" I yelled, pointing wildly to Shadow and Omega. "They're over there!" She nodded once before landing. I jumped off the roof, my feet stinging as I hit the ground.

"Hi," Rouge greeted, waving at them.

"Shadow!" I yelled. Unable to control myself, I threw my arms around him and hugged him tightly. Thankfully, he didn't seem to mind.

"Nice to see you too…" he mumbled quietly.

"It seems like Eggman's machines are looking for you," Rouge told him. Oh right, how could I forget? We had to fight off a hoard of robots when we came here. "What did you do _this_ time?" I frowned at her.

"Rouge…" I mumbled. He closed his eyes pensively.

"Nothing," he replied. "Their target is probably Mephiles." I shivered at his name.

"WHAT IS EGGMAN UP TO?" Omega asked. "WHO IS MEPHILES?" Shadow's eyebrows furrowed, a determined look in his face.

"I'm going to ask him personally," he said, more to himself than to any of us, and started walking away from us.

"Hey!" Rouge shouted after him. "Wait a sec!" Shadow turned back to us.

"I can handle this alone. You keep track of Mephiles."

"Oh no you don't!" I yelled at him. "The last time we left you alone, you got stranded in the future!"

"That's different, Keiko," he replied. "I chose to stay back."

"She's right, Shadow," Rouge broke in. "We could have helped. The only completely useless one here is Keiko."

"Hey!" I yelled at her. Shadow closed his eyes pensively.

"All right then," he concluded. "Keiko, you come with me. You seem to be on… better terms with Eggman than Rouge or Omega." I nodded once, and Shadow started walking for the exit.

"Don't worry," I told Rouge and Omega. "I'll keep an eye on him."

"Yeah, but usually _he's_ the one that keeps an eye on _you_," Rouge said, smirking a little. I sighed.

"I know… I mean… I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Rouge gave me a warm smile.

"That's more like it. Good luck." I smiled back and waved before following Shadow.

_Haru's POV:_

"I'm not going to let the Iblis Trigger get away!" Silver yelled determinedly. I sighed. There really wasn't a point in arguing with him anymore. So… not much happened, really. It was just the standard, generic level. Silver would use his telekinesis to levitate boxes and kill robots while I fought the rest to the best of my abilities. I was surprised this level didn't have any rails, though. Usually levels with trains or deep valleys have rails. I guess it's a good thing this one didn't. My balance is worse than my sister's. I was getting bored of this… generic level stuff. I guess the one interesting part of this level was when we had to run right in between two trains. Anyway, the real interesting stuff happened _after_ the level. Sonic was running, carrying that red-haired girl (I think her name was Elise).

"I knew it!" I heard her say to Sonic. "Oh, I knew you'd return! You had to!"

"There he is!" Silver yelled, dashing towards them.

"Silver, no!" I yelled, but he didn't listen, as usual. He shot a wave of blue energy at Sonic, which he narrowly avoided.

"You again," was all Sonic said as he put down Elise.

"This time, there will be no more interruptions!" Silver yelled. "The Iblis Trigger must die!"

"Silver, think about what you're doing," I said nervously. "He really hasn't done anything wrong, so why—"

"Shut up, Haru!" He jerked his arm violently at Sonic, who was hit by the blue energy and was sent flying through the air. He then held his palm out, trapping Sonic in a shield of blue energy. His eyelids were drooping, but he seemed to be forcing them open. Suddenly, I heard a scream, and I turned to see Elise getting carried away by a giant flying machine.

"Elise!" Sonic yelled. Silver gave a cry as he swung his arm. Sonic bent over, obviously struggling to stay conscious.

"It's time to end this!" he yelled. He moved his arm for the finishing blow, but something landed in front of us, and Silver jumped back involuntarily. It was a black and red hedgehog with crimson eyes. Sonic slumped to the floor behind him."Who…?" The black hedgehog continued to glare at us, a murderous glint in his eyes. "Mephiles!" Silver finally concluded. "Why are you getting in my way?!"

"I'm Shadow," the hedgehog said. No wonder Silver mistook him for Mephiles. Shadow looked exactly like him. "Shadow the hedgehog." He nodded once to Sonic, who gave him a thumbs-up sign and ran off.

"Shadow!" I heard another voice yell. A notoriously familiar female one. I turned to the source of the voice and I knew from that instant that my fun little dream had turned into a nightmare.

_Keiko's POV:_

Shadow ripped a hole in the metal, and we finally landed in the train. He glanced around cautiously, and finally let his guard down when he knew for sure that no one was around us. This train level was a nightmare. I'm not going to lie. Not only did we have to chase a train (a _train_ for god's sake), but Shadow also Chaos Controlled five times. _Five times_. In _one_ level. Not to mention, Shadow stole a random motorbike and drove at, like, two hundred miles an hour. What's the point of using it anyway? Can't Shadow run faster than some measly old motorbike? I'm not going to say I regret going with Shadow, though. I don't. It's just that this level was especially difficult. I know Shadow's stories are usually the hardest in the games (excluding Shadow the Hedgehog, of course), but this was ridiculous.

Anyway, I looked ahead and saw a chair with its back turned to us and a computer… wait. A _computer_ in a _train_? All was silent, but I knew Ivo was there. "Wouldn't the door have been easier?" he asked. I honestly didn't expect him to say that. He spun his chair around to face us. "So, what do you want _now_?" Well of _course_ he was annoyed to see us!

"Hi Ivo…" I mumbled quietly. He remained quiet for a few minutes.

"Why do you call me that, Keiko?" he asked finally. "No one's called me that in over thirty years. It's a pity you had to come and break that streak."

"Why?" I couldn't help asking. "It's your name, isn't it?"

"Yes, but—"

"Who is Mephiles?" Shadow suddenly asked, interrupting our conversation and completely changing the subject. "Why are you trying to capture him?" Eggman (wow, it's going to take a while getting used to that) stood up from his chair and turned his back to us.

"If you want to know, you should go find him yourself," Eggman replied stubbornly.

"_Please_, Doctor," I begged. I'll admit, I had to force out the "doctor" part. "We're desperate. Mephiles is—"

"But here's a hint," he continued. I could tell from the tone of his voice that by now he was talking more to me than to Shadow. "It's all linked to the Soleanna disaster ten years ago."

"The Solaris Project," Shadow said.

"Indeed," Eggman agreed. "When you capture Mephiles, you must bring him to me. Then I'll tell you the truth about Solaris." Shadow stared at the floor. I could tell he really didn't want to bring Mephiles to Eggman.

"Come on," he whispered to me. "Let's go." We began walking towards the exit.

"Use the door this time," Eggman called after us. I turned around. His back was turned to us, but I smiled anyway.

"Don't worry," I replied. "We'll try to get Mephiles."

"We don't really have a choice," Shadow added. "He hates me for some reason, and he's out to make my life a living hell."

"Isn't it already?" Eggman asked. Shadow's eyes narrowed slightly and he stared at the floor, and I liked arms with him. I could tell Eggman wasn't teasing Shadow anymore, but telling the truth. Neither of us wanted to admit it though.

"Come on, Shadow," I whispered before pulling him away. We walked out of the train the long way in silence. "Shadow…" I mumbled finally. "Are you ok?"

"Hn," he replied monotonously. I decided to drop the subject for now. When we were finally out of the train, I could see a blue hedgehog getting beaten into a bloody pulp by a white one and a boy with dark hair and glasses yelling at them.

"Shadow!" I yelled, tugging at his arm. "Sonic is—" But I never forgot to finish, for he was already running towards them. He threw himself in between the white hedgehog and Sonic, who was on the ground, struggling to stay conscious. I could see him talking to the white hedgehog, but I couldn't hear what they were saying. Shadow turned back to Sonic, who nodded and ran off. I ran towards them, desperate to catch up. "Shadow!" I yelled again. The human boy who was with them turned to look at me, and I saw what I didn't want to believe. It was my brother, Haru.

XX

**Bwahaha, I leave you all on a cliffhanger. Oh well, at least this chapter was longer than the rest. Anyway, I'm going to make the whole confrontation a separate chapter and I MAY have Keiko and Haru switch hedgehogs. You know, have Haru go with Shadow and Keiko go with Silver. What do you think? PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	12. Shadow vs Silver

**I'm running out of excuses for not updating. Sorry for leaving you at a cliffhanger at the last chapter and then not updating. Enjoy your long-awaited chapter.**

XX

_Keiko's POV_

"Why hello, Keiko, nice to see you in my—"

"What the hell?!" This question ran through my head, but my brother seemed unaffected by this predicament. "How are you here?! What happened?!"

"Well I got bored waiting for you, so I fell asleep," my brother explained with a serious expression, as if it made the most sense in the world. "And this is my dream!" I slapped my forehead.

"No it's not, Haru," I said. "This is real. We both got sucked into a video game." It was kind of sad to see Haru's calm expression instantly turn into one of panic.

"What the hell?!" he yelled. "How is that possible?!" I opened my mouth to respond, but he cut me off. "Watch out!" But I was too late. A white hedgehog slammed into me, pinning me on the ground. Haru ran up to us. "Silver, are you ok?!" he yelled, helping the white hedgehog up. The white hedgehog, presumably Silver, nodded.

"Hey, what about me?" I asked. Haru smiled and helped me up.

"This still doesn't make any sense," he said as Silver dashed for Shadow. Shadow Chaos Controlled behind him and kicked him in the head.

"Then don't try to make sense of it," I replied.

"Anyway, why did you ditch me?" he asked. Wait… what?

"Huh?"

"Yeah, you ditched me, and that's how I got here." My hands balled into fists and I stood up on my toes to meet my brother's… err… chin.

"_I_ ditched _you_?" I asked, my voice dangerously low. Then I lost it. "_You _ditched _me_! That's how I got sucked in four times!" Shock crossed Haru's face, and then he turned calm. It was scary; my brother never gets this calm unless he's furious.

"You got sucked in _four times_?" he whispered. I swallowed hard and nodded. "Well… what games did you get sucked into?" I guess that was to be expected.

"Sonic Adventure 2 Battle…" It was really depressing how I was counting with my fingers. "Sonic Heroes… Shadow the Hedgehog—" My brother finally exploded

"You got sucked into _Shadow the Hedgehog_?! What the hell?! That's the worst of the load! Shadow cusses so much in there, not to mention he has all these guns and swords, and—"

"I wasn't with Shadow in that game. It's a long story, but—"

"Well we have the time, so spill." I never got to, for my body suddenly went numb all over. I couldn't move and every time I tried to move a part of my body, that part would be sore. What the hell happened?!

_Haru's POV_

I knew Silver was never a rational thinker, but this was ridiculous. He was glaring at Shadow while trapping Keiko in his blue energy thing. "Give it up, Mephiles, or this girl dies!"

"Silver, what are you—" I didn't get to yell at Silver; Shadow cut me off.

"Two can play at that game," Shadow whispered icily. Before I knew it, he was grabbing the back of my shirt and pointing a jagged yellow spear at my throat. "Release her, or your friend dies." I looked back at Shadow, who didn't meet my gaze, and then at Keiko, who looked like she was trying to suppress laughter.

"Hey," I said nervously. "Why can't we all be friends here?"

"Oh don't even go there!" Silver yelled. "You were the one saying Mephiles isn't to be trusted and there you go—"

"Hey!" Keiko yelled. "That's not Mephiles!"

"Really?" Silver asked icily, a sarcastic edge to his tone. "It sure looks a lot like him to me."

"But it's not!" she protested. "Mephiles took his shadow to create his body, so that's why he looks so much like him!" Silver shook his head.

"You aren't making any sense," he said.

"It makes perfect sense!" Keiko argued. She sighed. "Ok, Shadow. I know you're mad, but put my brother _down_." Shit. Even though I didn't know I got sucked into a video game, I still lied to Silver. And Silver's not the type to let that kind of thing go easily.

"What?" Silver asked, shock and confusion evident on his face. I prayed that Keiko would just shut the hell up, but I guess that's impossible.

"Yeah, he's my brother!" she added.

"Right," I heard Shadow whisper as he released me. "The immature one." Wait… she told him about me? Silver's eyes averted to the floor as he released Keiko.

"Silver, I—" He cut me off.

"Haru, how could you?" he whispered. "You lied to me."

"Silver, I'm sorry, but—"

"I trusted you, ok? I trusted you almost as much as I trust Blaze."

"But Silver—"

"Hey, don't be mad at him!" Keiko yelled at Silver. "It's not like he—"

"We should finish this, Mephiles," Silver cut her off, changing the subject. Shadow nodded once before charging at him.

"Wait!" Keiko yelled.

"Stop!" I yelled. But it was too late. Silver dashed for Shadow, who pulled out his green Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow yelled. He seemed to disappear, then reappear a few seconds later behind Silver. He kicked him in the head, pushing him down.

"Silver!" I yelled. Keiko jumped.

"Nice one, Shadow!" she cheered. I glared at her, and she shrugged at me. Silver slowly got up and panted heavily.

"You…" he mumbled.

"Don't bother," Shadow said, stepping towards him. "With a Chaos Emerald's power, I control time and space. You can't break free." Silver shook his head frantically.

"I won't give up!" Silver yelled. "It all depends on me! Can't lose… Not when I'm so close!" Silver pulled out his blue Chaos Emerald, and I heard Keiko gasp next to me. He walked towards Shadow.

"Chaos Control!" they both yelled, their arms crossing.

"Oh great," Keiko mumbled. There was a flash of bright white light, and a large blue portal appeared above their heads. "Not again!"

"Huh?" I asked in confusion. "What is that?"

"You…" Shadow mumbled. "You induced a Chaos Control."

"I won't let anyone get in my way!" Silver said stubbornly, shaking his head. "I'll change the past and save the world!" Shadow turned away and closed his eyes.

"Mephiles isn't trying to help you create a better future," he whispered. "He's trying to eliminate the past."

"What?" Silver gasped incredulously. "What are you talking about?"

"He's the one that told us to kill Sonic," I told Shadow.

"Of course…" Keiko whispered. "He wants to get rid of Sonic for something… but what does he hope to achieve by killing Sonic?"

"To discover what happened…" Shadow said, now to all of us. He slowly walked towards Silver, but I don't think he meant him any harm now. "It seems we must see what took place ten years ago. Follow me if you want the truth." He turned towards Keiko and nodded before jumping into the blue portal. Silver looked up at the spot where Shadow disappeared and nodded.

"Ok…" he mumbled. "I guess this is where we find out if you were right, Haru," he said.

"About what?" asked Keiko.

"I don't trust Mephiles," I explained to her, "but Silver does."

"You idiot!" she yelled at Silver. "You can't trust him!"

"That's exactly what I've been trying to tell him," I told her. Silver shrugged and jumped into the portal. Keiko exhaled slowly.

"Ok…" she mumbled. "Here goes nothing." She took a step towards the portal, but I grabbed her hand to stop her.

"Wait!" I yelled. "Don't you want to think this through first?!" She turned back to me with a pitiful expression on her face.

"Haru, when you get sucked into four Sonic games, you'll learn that you should question things. It's better to just go with it." She pulled free from my grasp and stepped towards the portal. "I suggest you hurry. If you wait too long, it'll disappear." And then she jumped into it and disappeared.

"Hey!" I yelled. "Wait for me!"

XX

**Um… yay for long chapters? I would have updated yesterday, but the chapter wouldn't load for some weird reason. Haha, I'll try to update quicker next time. Anyway, I personally think this chapter was an epic fail. What do you think? PLEASE REVIEW!**


	13. Silver and Shadow: Aquatic Base

**I'm sad. I didn't get that many reviews for the last chapter. ANYWHO, my updates are going to be slow for a while. Expect one every couple of weeks or something like that. It'll be random, not all organized like how it was in the beginning. Enjoy?**

XX

_Keiko's POV_

I swear, I'll never get used to time-traveling. It was absolutely _horrible_ the first time around, but I guess it got a little better the more it happened. Anyway, I landed on the ground right in between Shadow and Silver. They both stepped back, and Haru landed right on top of me. "Gah, Keiko!" he yelled. "Can't you move?!"

"Agh, Haru!" I yelled back. "Get off me _right now_!"

"Quiet!" Shadow and Silver hissed simultaneously. I spun on my heel, trying to get a good look of our surroundings. We seemed to be in an outdated version of Eggman's base with no guard robots patrolling.

"Where are we?" Haru asked. There was a small circular window behind me. I looked into it and all I saw a magnificent stone building covered with moss.

"Kingdom Valley?" I guessed. Silver tilted his head to the side.

"What?" he asked.

"Old Soleanna," Shadow explained. Silver still wore a confused expression on his face, but he shook his head and changed the subject.

"Well, Shadow…" he said. "I guess it's time to look for your 'truth'." Shadow turned away and closed his eyes. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion. Silver jumped back into the wall, Shadow's head jerked up, Haru jumped slightly, and I grabbed Haru's arm and squeezed it as tightly as I could.

"What was that?" I asked nervously. Silver cautiously stepped away from the wall and peered into the long hallway.

"I think it came from over there!" he yelled, pointing at the door at the end of the hallway. "Come on!" He broke into a run and dashed for the doorway. Shadow turned to Haru and me.

"It wouldn't be the best idea if you two stayed here," he said. "Come on." I nodded as I slowly released Haru's arm. Shadow ran after Silver, and I followed him. I kept looking behind me to see Haru. He wasn't putting much effort into his jog; he hadn't even broken into a sweat by the end of the hallway. I was so jealous. Running with Shadow for four games (three if you don't count the one that I spent with Maria) hadn't done much to improve my speed. At the end of the hallway was a window of broken glass. Inside, everything was in ruins. Shadow and Silver jumped down, and Haru and I followed them.

"What happened?" Haru asked. I paced around, careful not to step on anyone or anything.

"Is this what Rouge was talking about?" I asked Shadow. "The disaster ten years ago?" Shadow closed his eyes and nodded.

"The flame!" Silver suddenly exclaimed. I looked over to where he was pointing, where a crumbling egg-shaped rock was being consumed by flames. "That's Iblis!" Shadow opened his eyes and glanced over at Silver. He pointed to the wisps of black smoke forming below the flaming rock. A black liquid was pouring out of a pot from below the flaming rock.

"And that shadow…" he whispered. "That's the original Mephiles." Silver stared incredulously at it.

"That's Mephiles?!" he gasped. I glanced back at Haru, who wore an expression of shock upon his face.

"Whoa…" he whispered. "Mephiles… what is he?"

"Shadow…" I mumbled, swallowing. "This is the Solaris Project, right?" He nodded slowly. "Isn't Solaris Soleanna's sun god?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Silver suddenly piped up.

"Well…" I mumbled. "Rouge mentioned that the duke of Soleanna was trying to harness Solaris's power before he died. The disaster was… _this_."

"And your point is?" Haru asked impatiently.

"I'm getting there," I shot back at him. "What if… Iblis and Mephiles are two parts of the same whole?"

"You mean… they're both parts of Solaris?" Silver asked, scratching the back of his head.

"I guess so."

"Well…" Haru mused. "That would make sense. If what you're saying is true, then Iblis is the flames, and—"

"Mephiles embodies darkness," Shadow finished. "That explains his power."

"So _that's_ why Blaze and I have never been able to defeat Iblis!" Silver realized. "We've been trying to fight a god! That's why it never dies!" I looked past Silver, only to see Iblis flying towards one door and Mephiles crawling towards another.

"Look!" I shrieked, pointing to them both.

"They're escaping!" Silver yelled.

"Way to go, captain obvious," Haru said sarcastically.

"We'll split up," Shadow concluded. "Keiko and I will pursue Mephiles."

"Leave Iblis to us," Silver replied. Shadow dashed after Mephiles, and Silver and Haru ran after Iblis.

"Careful, ok?" Haru said, casting me a warning look. "I know how Mephiles can be. He's really shifty and manipulative."

"I _know_, Haru," I whined back. "I'll be fine! Besides, I've dealt with Mephiles before. No problem!"

"I see how you're avoiding the fact that our little encounter with Mephiles landed us two hundred years into the future," Shadow pointed out. I glared at him.

"Shut up." He shrugged and jogged towards the door Mephiles escaped into. I started to follow him.

"W-Wait!" I heard a voice croak behind me. I whirled around, only to see an old man wearing an orange robe on his hands and knees. He seemed to be holding a white and purple staff up with much difficulty. I was surprised I didn't recognize it at first, but, then again, it didn't have any shadowy aura emanating from it. It was the Scepter of Darkness. "Seal it with this!" I ran back to him and took the Scepter from his hands. He released the Scepter as soon as my hands were clasped tightly around it, and he sat up with much difficulty. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Are you going to be ok?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Just go," he whispered. I looked up, but Haru and Silver were long gone. I nodded once.

"Thank you." I clasped the Scepter with both of my hands and ran back to Shadow. He raised his eyebrows at the Scepter, but he didn't say anything. I guess this just meant that he was as nervous about this mission as I was.

_Haru's POV_

"Iblis…" Silver mumbled for the millionth time that day. "Is a _god_…"

"Say that one more time, and I'll kill you," I retorted.

"We better find him soon, or the future's going to happen a lot more quickly than we thought it would."

"I've never heard that one before," I mused before glancing at him sideways. "And I thought you said Iblis was an 'it'."

"He, she, it…" Silver shrugged. "Whatever." He sighed, and we were left in silence. "I wish Blaze were here," he said randomly.

"What?" I retaliated. "I'm not good enough for you?"

"You're horrible," he said with such seriousness, I couldn't tell whether he was just teasing me or actually telling the truth. His sly smirk gave me the answer. "Blaze outclasses you in every way possible." I shook my head slowly.

"Fourteen-year-old boys… they can never seem to make up their minds." He tilted his head and stared at me quizzically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ruffled the quills on top of his head and chuckled.

"Blaze or Amy? Amy or Blaze? Which one's cuter? Which one has a better personality?" I laughed out loud as Silver's confused expression turned into a frown.

"Ha ha…" he laughed humorlessly. "Very funny. I guess the older you get, the more immature you become." He did _not_ just say that.

"Wow," I said sarcastically. "Thanks. As if I don't hear that on a daily basis already." Silver cocked an eyebrow.

"Your sister?"

"Obviously." Silver smirked.

"I guess great minds think alike." I just glared at him in return. Guess what? _More generic level stuff._ Defeat monsters while trying to reach a goal. Jeez, you'd _think_ Sega would have gotten more creative by now. We made our way to this one room where Iblis was trying to escape into another door. "Oh no you don't!" Silver yelled as he trapped Iblis in his blue energy. I just stared at it.

"Don't we have to seal it somewhere?" I asked. Silver just looked back at me in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Well, how long do you plan to stay like that, suspending Iblis in mid air?" Suddenly, an old man wearing an orange and white robe waddled over to us. He was carrying a small girl in his arms.

"What are you doing?!" Silver yelled. "You have to leave!"

"I have my duty!" the man proclaimed. "This living flame has been entrusted to the royal family! The Flames of Disaster will awaken if nothing is done. That must not happen!" He placed the girl on the table directly under Iblis and pulled out a white Chaos Emerald.

"Wait… you're not going to seal Iblis in her, are you?" I asked. The old man nodded.

"My daughter would be a likely candidate," he replied wearily.

"What kind of father seals flames in his own daughter?!" I yelled at him. He gave a small smile.

"I know it sounds awful, but… I don't have a choice… I'd seal it in myself if I could, but… I'm not sure how much time I have left…" I closed my eyes and clenched my fists.

"This is so _wrong_." Silver patted my arm.

"Let it go, Haru," he whispered coaxingly. The old man made his way over to the table.

"Eternal Sun!" he chanted, lifting his hand. The white Chaos Emerald rose into the air. "The living flame that has been entrusted to the royal family! Fall into slumber with a royal soul!" The Emerald seemed to absorb Iblis. A white beam of light shot down on the red-haired girl lying on the table.

"No…" I mumbled. "This is so _wrong_." The old man lifted the girl and staggered towards us.

"I'm sorry…" he mumbled. "But… can you take her to a safe place?" Before he could fall, I took the girl from his hands. The man slumped to his knees, so I crouched down on my knees as well. One of the girl's hands was dangling freely. The man took it in his hand, squeezed it for a second, and then placed it with the other hand resting on her stomach.

"That's a good girl, Elise," he said, gently patting her head. "Remember, be brave. Don't cry, no matter what happens. Otherwise your tears will call forth the flames inside you… Become a strong queen who doesn't cry no matter what happens. And… live… happily…" The man collapsed onto the floor, and I released the breath I didn't even know I was holding. For a few seconds, Silver and I gaped at the man lying dead or unconscious. I didn't know which one. I glanced down at the girl in my arms. She was the same one Eggman was trying to capture… that same one Sonic was trying to protect.

"We have to stop hunting Sonic," I whispered. Silver looked up at me, surprised. "He never did anything wrong. All he's been trying to do is protect Elise, and, because of us, she keeps getting captured." Silver sighed and shook his head.

"Give her to me for now," he said, avoiding my last statement.

_Keiko's POV_

"Shadow!" I yelled as I struggled to keep up with him. "Wait up!" He skidded to a halt and waited for me, tapping his foot.

"Can't you run any faster?" he growled as I stopped next to him.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. He sighed as he took the Scepter from me. He held it in one hand and grabbed my hand with the other. Then he broke into a sprint as he chased Mephiles.

"Or that works too," I mumbled to myself. We sprinted through the base, avoiding those things that looked like Black Arms. It wasn't long before we finally cornered Mephiles. Darkness enveloped the room. Shadow pulled out his green Chaos Emerald. It seemed like the one bright spot in the dark room.

"Chaos Control!" he yelled. The darkness flashed purple.

"What…?" a deep voice said. I jumped and frantically searched the room for the voice. "…Stop!" Shadow brought his arms apart, and the Scepter of Darkness rose into the air. Bright white light burst from the Scepter. "Who… who are… you?"

"Don't say anything," I whispered. I had to remind myself to leave out his name.

"I'm Shadow," he said, ignoring me. "Shadow the hedgehog."

"No…" I mumbled. "Why did you do that?"

"Shadow…" said the deep voice. "Your face… your form… I will remember." The darkness began swirling into the Scepter. "Your death… Certain… You… will die!" The last of the darkness swirled into the Scepter, and it fell to the floor with a clatter. I could now see the shadowy aura clearly. Shadow lifted it, clasping it tightly in his hand.

"Why did you give your name?" I asked. Shadow closed his eyes pensively.

"Why shouldn't I?" he retorted. "He's going to find out anyway." I groaned.

"You idiot," I mumbled. "He already has a personal vendetta against you."

"It's because I'm the one that sealed him. Even if he _didn't_ know my name, he'd still remember me. It wouldn't have made any difference." I sighed.

"Fine… Let's find Silver and my brother."

_Haru's POV_

Silver and I waited outside. Neither of us said anything; I was officially scarred for life. I'm not even kidding. Even Silver, who's seen some pretty disturbing things in his life, seemed shocked at the little scene that just played out. We both turned around at the sound of footsteps. Shadow and Keiko were walking towards us. Shadow was carrying a weird purple staff surrounded by this shadow and Keiko was smiling and waving at us. I couldn't help but smile back at her. "Did you do it?" Silver asked. It was the first time he'd spoken in a while. Shadow nodded.

"Yes," he replied confidently. "And you?" Silver nodded hesitantly.

"Yes… the flames are properly sealed," he replied morosely. "It's done." Silver made his way over to a tree and gently laid Elise down so that she was propped up against it. Shadow laid the staff next to Elise. "You're going to leave it behind?" Silver asked.

"Yes…" Shadow replied. "I already know what becomes of it in the future."

"Um…" Keiko piped up. "Shadow… maybe we should take the Scepter with us. Maybe we can stop Mephiles from—"

"Do you remember what happened the last couple of times you tried to change what was destined to happen?" Shadow retorted.

"All right…" she mumbled quietly. "Fine…"

"It's time to return," he said to all of us. He stood up and walked away from the tree.

"Yes… of course…" Silver replied. Keiko looked over at me and scrutinized my face.

"What's wrong, Haru?" she asked. I shook my head.

"Nothing," I replied hastily.

"Did something happen?" she asked. Damn, why couldn't she just drop the freaking subject?!

"It's nothing…" I replied. "I'll tell you about it later."

"Are you sure?" I sighed and nodded. "Ok…" Silver walked up to Shadow and the two held their arms in the air, the blue and green Chaos Emeralds held in the air respectively.

"Chaos Control!" they both shouted, and a blue portal appeared in front of it.

"Well…" Keiko mumbled. "Bye Haru. I'll see you soon… I guess…" I nodded.

"If this game is anything like the others, then I'm sure I'll see you again," I replied. Shadow leapt into the portal. Keiko smiled reassuringly and waved before jumping in after him. I stepped towards the portal, but I couldn't hear Silver following me. I turned to look at him. He was staring at his blue Chaos Emerald pensively. "Aren't you coming?" I asked him. He paused.

"Wait," he said before walking towards the sleeping Elise.

"Father…" I heard her mumble sadly. Silver knelt down next to her and took her hand gently. Then he did the last thing I'd expect him to do. He placed the Chaos Emerald in her hand.

"It's a lucky charm," he told her as he placed her hand and the Chaos Emerald on her lap. She stirred slightly, and he stood up hesitantly. "Let's go, Haru," he said without even looking at me. And with that, he jumped into the portal. I had no choice but to follow suit.

XX

**Yess… 2,722 words. I feel so accomplished. ****Btw, RedDragonForce1, I think I'll take your suggestion of wounding Keiko, but change it a little. How? I'll let you know in your review reply. **

**Anyway, writing that chapter made me feel depressed. Congratulations to the Duke of Soleanna for the Father of the Year award. He even sealed an evil sun god in his own daughter. Bravo! **

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	14. Silver: Kingdom Valley

**WOOO I'M NOT DEAD! I've just been really lazy. –hangs head in shame- PLEASE forgive me. Anywho, I have a Haru chapter since the last chapter before I squished both stories into one chapter was a Keiko chapter AND… let's just say putting a Haru chapter here will help the story flow better. Anyway, I LOVE Kingdom Valley, don't you? So serene, so peaceful… just GREAT for running into random crap during Sonic's speed stage, don't you think? Haha, JK. Basically, Kingdom Valley's my favorite level if you ignore having to use all the crap in Shadow's level and Sonic's speed stage in general. So… enjoy?**

XX

I said hello to the ground with my feet and a certain purple cat was the first thing that caught my eye. I smiled and waved (yeah, I was _totally_ over the Duke of Soleanna sealing an evil sun god in his own freaking _daughter_ and Silver giving her our Chaos Emerald just like that). I heard Silver land behind me, and he walked up hesitantly to us. "Blaze…" he said quietly and uncertainly. She crossed her arms and frowned slightly.

"What did you see?" she asked impatiently. I sighed and glanced over at Silver, unsure of what to say. He slightly lowered his head so that he didn't have to see her face.

"The Iblis Trigger…" he began hesitantly, "wasn't Sonic the hedgehog." Blazed closed her eyes and nodded in an understanding manner. She then looked to me.

"What?" she asked. "Why are you so quiet? No 'ha ha' or 'I told you so'?" I shook my head.

"No," I replied shortly. I tore my attention away from Silver and Blaze and gazed over at the crowd standing in the middle of the square, trying to listen to the incomprehensible chatter. Silver seemed to have the same idea.

"They're quite noisy," he commented.

"Yes," Blaze confirmed. "I heard that the princess here left for Dr. Eggman's base in response to his earlier threat." I jumped back involuntarily.

"What?" I yelled. "He can't do that! Does he even know what she is?" I shook Blaze by the shoulders. "Why didn't you do anything?" Blaze put her hands over mine and pulled them off her shoulders calmly.

"Why should I?" she asked. "I don't see what the big deal is. Why are you getting so upset?"

"Long story short," I explained, "Elise is the Iblis Trigger, _not_ Sonic." Blaze shrugged.

"Well if we have to eliminate the Iblis Trigger, it'll be a lot easier to have Dr. Eggman do it for us." I groaned in exasperation.

"You don't get it, do you? If we destroy the Iblis Trigger, then Iblis will be released!"

"Stop it, Haru," Silver said sharply. "Yelling at Blaze won't get us anywhere." I sighed. "But… I can't help but wonder… what if Dr. Eggman's ultimate objective was to release Iblis?"

"Then we have to stop him," Blaze said matter-of-factly.

"Way to go, captain obvious," I said through gritted teeth. Blaze sighed.

"Let's just ask around town to see where Dr. Eggman went," she suggested. I sighed and nodded. We split up after that as the three of us asked practically everyone in Soleanna about Dr. Eggman. All three of us got the same answer: he was headed towards the ruins in Old Soleanna." Why he was headed there of all places, I have no idea. Anywho, we ended up getting stranded in this hot jungle… well… I guess I wouldn't say _stranded_. So strength, random trials of puberty (whoops, did I say puberty? I meant _purity_), blah blah blah. We eventually gained access into the ruins' depths. Well it was pretty peaceful until a certain blue hedgehog caught our attention. He was just running innocently in the grass when about five robots landed in front of him. Silver sighed.

"We have to help him, don't we?" he asked. I nodded. Sonic skidded to a halt as the robots walked towards him. Silver held up his hand lazily, and the robots—now surrounded by a cyan aura—froze. Silver landed in front of Sonic and flicked his arms, sending the robots flying backwards. Well… let's just say they're scrap metal now. Silver turned back to Sonic and smirked. "You look like you're in a hurry," he commented.

"Way to point out the obvious, Silver," I said sarcastically, walking up to them. Silver ignored this commented.

"So…" Sonic started uncertainly. "What's going on?"

"Circumstances have changed," Silver said seriously. I'm sure he swallowed a dictionary. "I need to rescue the princess." Sonic shrugged.

"Ok," he replied. "Sure. The more the merrier." He pointed his thumb backwards as he broke into a jog. Silver followed him, and I sprinted to catch up to Sonic.

"Hey," I greeted casually.

"Hey," he replied. "You're… um… Haru! Yeah, that's it, Haru! You're Haru, right?" I chuckled and nodded.

"Yep. I guess I'm not all that hard to forget. I'm _Keiko's brother_, after all." Sonic skidded to a halt.

"What?" he yelled incredulously. "You're her brother?"

"What?" I asked. "Surprised? Actually, most people say we look like twins." Sonic frowned.

"You don't look _that_ much alike, but I can tell you two are related, now that I think about it." I smirked, and Sonic sprinted ahead. Silver followed him expectantly, and I wasn't too far behind… ok, I lied. I mean, come on! Why don't _you_ try to keep up with someone who can run faster than the speed of sound? Well… more generic level stuff _as usual_. At least I was entertained. Sonic and I made good conversation. "So what's with your sudden change of plans?" he asked me one time. "Why don't you want to kill me anymore?" I sighed.

"You know how we kept calling you the Iblis Trigger?" I asked. He nodded slowly, glaring. "Yeah, well, it isn't you. It's Elise."

"So now you're trying to kill her?" Sonic yelled. "Why don't you just let Eggman do it?"

"Let me finish!" I yelled. "We can't kill her, 'cause that's only going to release Iblis. _That's_ why we have to save her." Sonic put his hand to his chin and nodded.

"Oh… I see…" Other than that, there was really nothing more to say. At long last, we found Eggman's ship flying towards the side of a cliff. Flames were coming out of spouts in its sides; it seemed like it lost control. It disappeared from view, and then a loud boom echoed throughout the ruins. Sonic's eyes widened in horror. "ELISE!" he yelled. I sighed and hung my head. It was over. Sonic slumped to his knees, then pounded the ground with his fist. Blaze walked up to him slowly.

"I'm sorry…" she whispered sympathetically. "I know how hard it can be to lose someone."

"No!" Sonic yelled. "I failed… I promised I'd protect her…"

"It isn't your fault," I told him.

"But I still could have saved her!" he said bitterly.

"Wait…" Silver interrupted us. "There's still a way to change this!"

"What do you mean?" Blaze asked.

"If we return to an earlier point in time," he explained, "we'll be able to save her." Sonic stood up slowly.

"I understand," he said. Silver pulled out a white Chaos Emerald, and Sonic pulled out a cyan one. They stepped towards each other and held the Emeralds in the air.

"Chaos Control!" they both yelled, and a blue portal appeared above their heads.

"I'm going alone," Sonic said. "I can't drag you three into this."

"It's our mission too," I protested.

"But we have to save _our_ world, Haru," Blaze explained. "In _our_ time." I sighed and nodded. Sonic dashed towards the portal.

"Silver!" he yelled as he flung the Chaos Emerald at him. "I'll make sure to change Elise's fate! And that in turn should change your future too!" Silver nodded. "Thanks!"

"Yeah…" Silver mumbled. "Just save her." I chuckled and ruffled the quills on top of his head. And with that, Sonic leapt into the portal. Blaze stepped towards the portal.

"I'm sure we can travel back to the future with this portal," she mused.

"And we won't be separated this time," I added. Silver nodded once.

"Ok… let's go!" Blaze leapt into the portal, and Silver and I followed. I had a feeling this adventure was coming to a close.

XX

**Yes, one Haru chapter out of the way! I've had a major burst of inspiration, and I know exactly how I'm going to end this! But I can't tell you, so… sorry. All you can do is REVIEW and wait for another chapter, so REVIEW!**


	15. Shadow: Wave Ocean

**O.O Epic moment in history. I actually updated within ONE MONTH. That hasn't happened since summer. Anywho, this is a KEIKO chapter, and I'm actually looking forward to writing her part. I haven't been this excited since I started writing this whole thing (the series, not this fic). Anyway, ENJOY!**

XX

I sighed as we landed in the middle of Soleanna. I still couldn't get used to the fact that my brother got sucked in too. Not only that, but he had the common sense to survive for most of the game. Shadow landed behind me. "You're back sooner than I expected," said a voice behind us. I yelped and jumped as Shadow whirled around. Rouge was standing behind us, waving. She pointed to the sea out in the distance. "Omega's still in pursuit of Mephiles. So… where's the kid? What did you find ten years ago?" Shadow stepped away.

"I need you to access GUN's database," he told her. "Specifically, find out what materials the Scepter of Darkness was made from."

"Sure…" Rouge said. "But you still haven't answered my question." Shadow whirled around.

"I found the means to seal Mephiles," he said hurriedly before running off.

"Wait!" Rouge called. She shook her head and pressed a few buttons on her watch. "This is Rouge," she said into her watch. "I need you to locate the Scepter of Darkness for me. Also, see if you can find out what it was originally made of."

"I'm on it," said a voice from the watch. Rouge pressed another button on her watch, causing it to beep.

"So what happened?" she asked me.

"We found out about Mephiles's origins," I told her. "You see, Soleanna worships the eternal sun god, Solaris. When enraged, Solaris splits into two separate beings: Iblis, which embodies Solaris's wrath and power, and Mephiles, which embodies Solaris's cunning mind. Before traveling into the past, we ran into another hedgehog, Silver, who mistook Shadow for Mephiles."

"Figures," she mumbled. "He _does_ look exactly like him."

"But the thing is my _brother_ was traveling with Silver." Rouge's mouth fell open.

"Your _brother_?" she asked incredulously. "What's _he_ doing here? How did he even get here?" I scratched the back of my head.

"I'm not sure… Anyway, Shadow and I sealed Mephiles in the Scepter of Darkness. _That's_ why Mephiles hates Shadow so much."

"I see…" she mumbled. Suddenly, her watch beeped.

"Agent Rouge, respond," said a voice from the watch. "The location of the Scepter of Darkness is unknown, but there is an archeologist who is researching it. If you find the archeologist, you might get more information."

"All right," Rouge said into the watch. I grabbed her wrist and pulled it towards me.

"Thank you," I said into the watch. "Shadow!" I yelled. "We have to find this archeologist! Apparently he knows about the Scepter of Darkness!" He turned back.

"Understood," he replied curtly. He broke into a light jog, and I ran to catch up with him. Turns out, the archeologist was near the fountain in Soleanna. It was a young girl with blonde pigtails and a fedora.

"Help!" she cried. Mephiles's monsters surrounded her, shooting fireballs at her.

"Rouge and I will handle this," Shadow said. "Keiko, you take her someplace safe." I nodded and tugged at the archeologist's hand.

"Come with me," I told her. "It'll be ok." She whimpered and followed me. We took shelter in the shade behind a building.

"Thank you," she told me. "I'm Adrianna. I'm an archeologist studying Soleanna's ruins. When I was researching the ruins, they suddenly attacked me… thank you for rescuing me."

"You're welcome," I replied cheerfully.

"I was researching the Scepter of Darkness," she explained, "a royal treasure recorded in ancient Soleannan texts."

"Do you know where it is?" I asked.

"I have a feeling that it's somewhere in this Castle Town… but that's all I've been able to find. This is what it says in the ancient texts: 'When black flame lights the Candle of Darkness, the priest's prayers are answered, the dark seal shall be no more, and so shall emerge the power.'"

"What do you mean?" asked a voice behind me. I jumped and whirled around, only to see Shadow and Rouge standing there.

"Candles are everywhere, you know," Adrianna continued, "but I have no idea where to find the 'Candle of Darkness'. And the 'priest's prayers'… what is that? Plus, what's the 'black flame'? That's not normal… maybe a special light?"

"The 'black flame' is probably Mephiles," Shadow mused.

"I don't think so," I argued. "Maybe it's Solaris as a whole."

"Speaking of 'black flame'," Adrianna interrupted us. "Can't you generate light?" I glanced over at Shadow, and he shrugged.

"Well… take care now," I told her. "Thanks for your help!" She smiled and ran off. "Hmm…" I mused. "'Generate light'… Does she mean Chaos Spear?"

"Maybe," Rouge replied. "But the 'Candles of Darkness'…"

"You mean the candles around the fountains?" a man behind us suddenly said.

"What the hell?" I yelled.

"Were you eavesdropping?" Rouge questioned angrily.

"N-Not at all, ma'am," he stuttered. "But… allow me to explain… There have been three fountains here since Soleanna was founded. One is the fountain of the Goddess. It is a statue of a woman playing music and it embodies beauty. Next is the Fountain of the Priest. It was made with the hope of peace in Soleanna. Last is the Fountain of the Sage. That's the one you're looking at now." He gestured behind us, and we saw the same fountain we'd been staring at for a while. "It was made with the hope that Soleanna's citizens would become more intelligent." I looked to Rouge, then to Shadow.

"'The priest's prayers are answered'…" I quoted. Shadow closed his eyes and crossed his arms.

"I see…" he mused.

"Thank you," Rogue thanked the man. Shadow then took off, and we followed him.

"The Fountain of the Priest…" he mumbled. "Rogue, where is that?

"Somewhere near the beach," she replied.

"All right," Shadow said confidently. "Let's go." Sure enough, we found a fountain with a statue of a priest in the middle, where Shadow used his Chaos Spear to illuminate the candles surrounding it with a strange black flame. "So the black flame isn't Mephiles or Solaris at all… It's my Chaos Spear…" All four were lit in no time, and the Scepter of Darkness suddenly appeared in front of us. I cautiously picked it up, even though there was nothing wrong with it. "Good… now I can finally stop Mephiles." We then followed Shadow to the beach. We… ahem… _borrowed_ GUN's air bombing thing. After flying it and shooting random monsters along the way, we finally jumped out.

"Ok," Shadow said. "We'll find Omega soon. Hang in there…" From then on, we dashed through the beach in pursuit of Omega. We finally found him shooting at Mephiles. We heard maniacal laughter, and we saw wisps of black smoke on the ground. Then it was just Omega.

"What just happened?" Rouge asked.

"SHADOW," Omega addressed. "THE ONE THAT DEFEATS AND SEALS YOU IN THE FUTURE… IS ME."

"What?" I gasped. I looked up at Omega, who looked rather guilty, then at Shadow, who looked somewhat hurt. "Shadow… what's going on?"

"It's…" Rouge mumbled. "It's so unfair! Shadow's always here to defend the world!" Shadow closed his eyes and turned away. "Despite that…"

"EVENTUALLY WHEN SOMEONE OR SOMETHING IS SEEN AS TOO POWERFUL," Omega explained, "IT IS SEEN AS A THREAT… AND THEN THE WORLD BECOMES ITS ENEMY." I fidgeted with my fingers.

"I'm sorry Shadow…" I whispered. He took a few steps away from us. I felt my chest cave in because I knew there was nothing I could do. This game was going to end soon, and I was going to leave. I would just abandon Shadow and forget about him… My hands balled into fists as I grew more and more angry with myself.

"Shadow…" Rouge mumbled. "Even if you believe everyone in the world will be against you… know that I'll always remain by your side." I gave a small smile.

"That goes for me too," I added.

"Remember that," Rouge repeated. Shadow stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to face us.

"I will," he whispered. And with that, he walked off. Rouge, Omega, and I had no choice but to silently follow.

XX

**This has to be my favorite part of Shadow's story in this game… my favorite Shadow scene in general. The part where Shadow has a flashback of Maria while saving Rouge in SA2 comes close, though. I felt kind of guilty for having Keiko interfere in Rouge's pep talk. What do you think? PLEASE REVIEW!**


	16. Silver: Flame Core

**I'm almost done! Just three more chapters! Aww I'm going to miss this story **** It's ok… I guess. So this is the last part of Silver's story. Enjoy!**

XX

Silver, Blaze and I landed in the future, and it was around nighttime. The black, cloudless sky loomed above our heads. I glared at it. I wanted it to be blue again. "I know how to save our world now," Silver said to us, holding out the silver and the cyan Chaos Emeralds. "We don't have to change the past." He frowned in determination. "I'm sure of it."

"So you have a plan?" Blaze asked. Silver nodded. "Well then let's hurry. I sense his flames." She closed her eyes pensively. "This is the final stretch… we can do this." I smiled.

"Everything's going to be ok," I whispered to them. "Without a doubt."

"Then let's go," Silver told us. And with that, we followed him through what appeared to be a mountain. Iblis's minions were everywhere. Were they expecting us or something? It was a pain having to follow Silver through all that lava, though. How the hell did so many boxes get into a freaking volcano?

"I thought you said Iblis was an 'it'," I said randomly.

"He, she, it," Silver mumbled distractedly.

"Whatever," Blaze finished. I officially vowed that I hated Iblis and if I ever see one of those fiery worm things again, I will rip someone's head off. And then the _randomly floating platforms in the lava_! Ugh… don't even get me started. And, as if the red monsters were that bad, the _purple_ ones were even worse. Well, fire levels suck. What more can I say?

Well, eventually we were forced to go _inside_ the volcano. Now is it just me, or is Sega trying to rip off Nintendo? Wasn't there a level in some Mario game _exactly_ like this one? With randomly floating platforms and everything? "It doesn't matter what the cost is," Blaze muttered as we fell into the volcano. "Iblis dies today." Hmm… déjà vu…

"You're with me, right?" Silver asked innocently. Blaze nodded once.

"Till the end," she replied confidently.

"Ok…" Silver exhaled sharply. "Haru?" I shrugged.

"You have to ask?" Silver smiled in relief and charged through the flying enemies that now joined our little posse. A little later, I noticed something shiny lying on the floor: a rusty old sword.

"Keep it with you," Blaze advised me. "It could come in handy. Martial arts alone won't get us through to Iblis." So, for the rest of this bigass level, Silver tossed some boxes at some unsuspecting enemies, Blaze went all fiery and spun and stuff, and I just used my sword. _I felt like a ninja._ At long last, we finally reached Iblis. It was just like the beginning. He/she/it rose out of the flames majestically, growling and roaring at us.

"C'mon Iblis!" Silver yelled. "This time I'll finally stop you!" Iblis bellowed as he/she/it stretched his/her/its arms out. It sent a flurry of rocks flying at us.

"Duck!" Blaze yelled. I obeyed, but Silver didn't. He stuck his out, and a light blue shield formed around us. Many of the rocks bounced off, but some landed right beside us. Silver seized this opportunity to grab some of the rocks with his telekinesis and hurled them at Iblis. They all hit. Blaze practically flew at him, hitting him in the head several times. Iblis gave a great bellow of pain.

"Get back!" I yelled to Silver and Blaze. "I'm finishing this!" And with that, I hurled my sword at him with all the strength I could muster. It punctured the green gem on its forehead.

"Nice shot!" Silver yelled from behind me. Iblis roared as it sank back down into the fiery abyss. The lava below us began to spin into a whirlpool, and some if it shot straight up into the sky. Sparks rained down on us like hail. The flames formed a circle floating in midair. Silver held both Chaos Emeralds out and shut his eyes. "Chaos Emeralds, lend me your power!" he chanted. He lifted his head and stared up at the remains of Iblis's flames. "Eternal Sun! The living flame that has been entrusted to the royal family! Fall into slumber with my soul Iblis, you cursed Flames of Disaster!" The Chaos Emeralds glowed and the flames began flying into Silver. Silver cried out in pain as the flames circled around him.

"Silver, stop!" I yelled. I took a step towards him with every intention of knocking the Chaos Emeralds out of his hands, but Blaze stopped me.

"No!" Silver grunted. It was only now that I noticed that a majority of the flames were still suspended in midair. Silver's plan clearly wasn't working. "Why won't it accept me as the vessel?" He crouched over for a second, then stood up straight. His chest glowed as the flames continued to circle around him. He practically screamed.

"Just stop it!" I yelled again. "This isn't worth it!"

"We promised to protect the world at any cost!" Silver shouted back. "We… can't turn back now!"

"There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and you've just crossed it!" I yelled back. I broke away from Blaze and ran towards him. Little did I know that Blaze was right behind me. She gently placed her hand on Silver's shoulder.

"Blaze…" Silver mumbled.

"I'll take Iblis!" she proclaimed.

"What?" Silver gasped.

"You're crazy!" I yelled.

"Don't worry," she told both of us. "My soul is already lit with flames." She placed her hand over one of the Chaos Emeralds, covering Silver's hand in the process. "I will be accepted." I swiped her hand away angrily.

"No!" I yelled. "You're not doing this!" But she didn't listen. She took the Emeralds anyway. She crossed her arms, and the Chaos Emeralds glowed. All at once, the flames flew into her.

"Come on, make it quick!" she commanded. "Use your Chaos Control… to stop time! Then… seal us into a different dimension!" I would have hit Silver if he was willing to sacrifice her that easily. Fortunately, he wasn't.

"No…" he mumbled, shaking his head. "I can't do that to you!"

"Didn't we already go through this?" she yelled, turning her head. "We agreed to save the world at any price!" Silver stared down at his hands.

"I can't!" he replied. "I wouldn't know what to do without you!" I felt like a traitor for not volunteering to take their places in the resealing of Iblis. "You've fought alongside me to save the world!" And then I felt like an intruder, coming in between two people who have been friends practically their entire lives. "You're my friend… right?"

"I'm sorry," I said without thinking. "Let me do it instead. I'm vegetable." Blaze chuckled.

"You're still so naïve…" I could tell she was saying this more to Silver than to me. "But… I… I've always liked that about you…" She lifted her head and the flames began to swirl faster. Something was going terribly wrong. A purple light surrounded her as she dropped the Chaos Emeralds. Her body turned translucent as she rose into the sky. I couldn't believe it… she sacrificed herself to save the world. Silver held his hand out as he watched Blaze rise higher into the sky in horror.

"Blaze!" he yelled almost desperately. Blaze gave a gentle smile.

"Good luck Silver!" she yelled. "Bye Haru! Thanks for your help!" Silver fell to his knees, and I felt like my stomach just dropped out of my body. There was a brilliant flash in the sky and rays of sunlight began to peek through the virtually impenetrable cover of clouds. The sky turned from dark red to light blue… the color it always should have been. The clouds parted, and I could see the full sun.

"Oh my god…" I whispered. I heard a sniffle next to me. I looked down and saw Silver wiping his eyes. "Silver? Are you ok?"

"Shut up," he replied. "I'm sure you'd cry if your sister died." I sighed and looked back up at the spot where Blaze disappeared. I put my hand on his shoulder protectively.

"You know what Silver?" I whispered. "I would." It was all so wrong. Silver just lost his best friend to a greedy evil sun god. It was just so unfair. I then knew what I had to do. If Blaze couldn't be there for Silver, then I would. I would stay back with Silver, just so that he wouldn't be alone.

No one, not even my sister, could convince me otherwise.

XX

**So… are you happy I didn't fall off the face of the earth? Now that the Silver/Haru arc is over, now it's time to wrap up the Keiko/Shadow arc. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	17. Shadow: Dusty Desert

**It's the return of Keiko's Chaos powers! Well… sort of. You'll see what I mean in the chapter. The whole idea was stupid, but I couldn't just disregard it, now could I? Enjoy!**

Rouge and Shadow paced back and forth, their eyes fixed on the floor. Omega stood still as a statue with his arms crossed, and I sat on his shoulders. "Ok guys, what's going on?" I asked. "What's our plan?"

"Does it look like we have one?" Rouge asked, lifting her head slightly to snap at me.

"Do _you_ have a plan?" Shadow asked as he stopped pacing. I crossed my arms and let my head fall onto Omega's.

"No…" I mumbled. "How the hell are we supposed to defeat a freaking _god_?"

"We just need to seal him in the Scepter of Darkness," Shadow said, slamming his fist into his hand.

"_How_ we're going to do that…" Rouge continued. "I have no idea."

"THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE," Omega said matter-of-factly. "MEPHILES IS INVINCIBLE."

"No he's not!" I yelled. "He's got to have _some_ weakness." Shadow and Rouge blinked at me. "I don't know… an object is only as strong as its weakest point?"

"The problem is, he doesn't _have_ one," Shadow muttered."I've fought him before. I should know. I just barely escaped myself."

"Well we've got the advantage," Rouge pointed out semi-cheerfully. "He's outnumbered four to one."

"Yeah, but he can summon an entire army of clones at his command," Shadow retorted bitterly.

"EACH INDIVIDUAL CLONE IS AS STRONG AS THE ORIGINAL MEPHILES," Omega added.

"Great…" I mumbled dejectedly.

"We're going to need as much help as we can get," Rouge said, slamming her fist into the palm of her hand. Her gaze shifted towards me. "That means you have to fight too, Keiko."

"What?" I yelled. "But I can't… how can I… huh?"

"We'll get you some sort of weapon," Shadow told me. "A gun or something."

"But what if I shoot one of you?" I shot back. Shadow shrugged.

"A sword then." And with that, we headed down to the shop. "Do you have any kind of sword?" Shadow asked the sales clerk.

"Ooh, we just have one left!" the sales clerk replied. He turned his back to us and fished into one of the cabinets. He returned holding an enormous sword sheathed with a black leather case. Shadow grabbed it and handed it to me. I grabbed the hilt with both hands and almost dropped it. It was ridiculously heavy.

"Swing it around a couple times," Shadow advised me. I struggled to get the sword out of the sheath, and then swung it back and forth slowly. After I was done swinging, the sword felt slightly lighter than it did when I first held it. Shadow slammed a couple of rings down on the counter, muttered a quick "thank you," then left. We made our way to the Fountain of the Priest and then sat down on the edge.

"So how are we going to seal Mephiles in the Scepter of Darkness?" I asked. "We need some sort of plan. We need to force him in there! He's not going to go willingly."

"Do you have any ideas?" Shadow asked. I sighed.

"Honestly…" I started. "No."

"Why don't we just corner him and _then_ seal him?" Rouge suggested.

"Easier said than done," Shadow replied bitterly. "Either way, I need to stay conscious to seal him."

"And if you're _not_?" Rouge prompted. Shadow shrugged.

"Then Keiko will have to do it." I practically jumped.

"What?" I yelled. "I can't do that!"

"You could Chaos Control on the ARK, remember?" Shadow reminded me. "I understand that you haven't really tried that since then, but if you could do that, then you can probably seal Mephiles in the Scepter of Darkness." I stared at the floor, unable to come up with any logical comeback. "But that's only if I can't do it."

"We're doomed," Rouge said pessimistically.

"NEGATIVE," Omega retorted. "SHADOW MUST NOT GET IN HARM'S WAY!"

"So what?" I asked. "We just charge to Mephiles without him and then have him Chaos Control to our location? That's not going to work!"

"It's not about the lair," Rouge said, pointing her finger into the air. "It's about Mephiles. We just need to defeat him and keep him under long enough to seal him."

"But how can we do that without Shadow?" I asked.

"There's no way in _hell_ you're leaving me out of this," Shadow interrupted.

"WE CANNOT DEFEAT MEPHILES WITHOUT SHADOW," Omega continued.

"And I can't defeat Mephiles without at least one other person," Shadow mused, rubbing his chin. "The problem is, he's going to be more powerful now. So all of you have to help. Last time, Omega and I just barely defeated him."

"I thought we already agreed to fight," Rouge practically growled, crossing her arms. Everyone sounded really tense.

"Hey!" I yelled. "Why don't we just save the fighting for Mephiles? If we argue now, we'll never be able to defeat him."

"All I'm saying is—" Rouge began, but I interrupted her.

"No!" I yelled. "Let's just finish this!"

"AFFIRMATIVE," Omega agreed with me. We made our way to the desert, thanks to Shadow's GUN status. We stood on top of a sand dune, and Rouge pointed out to some ruins out in the distance.

"Mephiles appears to have headed for those ruins," she pointed out. "He's probably looking for the Chaos Emerald that's supposed to be there." Shadow nodded once.

"There's no doubt in my mind," he told her. "His movement shows he's seeking any Chaos Emerald he can find. Supposedly, he needs one to join with Iblis again." I sighed.

"At least he doesn't have Princess Elise," I said optimistically. "If Iblis is with her, then he needs to find her before he can make any big plans."

"Yeah, but he needs a Chaos Emerald first," Rouge reminded me.

"WE SHALL NOT LET HIM HAVE IT," Omega said, crossing his arms.

"Besides," Shadow continued. "I will seal him before that." I sighed.

"Ok…" I mumbled. "Let's get this over with." Fortunately, GUN generously lent us an airship, so we reached the ruins in no time.

"It's just a bit further," Shadow told us once we were inside. But, then again, it wasn't getting there that was the problem. It was defeating and resealing Mephiles. Running through continuous waves of sand was hell, though.

"SWITCH DETECTED," Omega said once we were past the sand waves. "I WILL PUSH THE SWITCH. SHADOW, WAIT HERE." Omega charged forward, and Rouge and I sat down on a rather fragile-looking step. I couldn't stop thinking about sealing Mephiles. What if I had to do it?

"Don't worry," Shadow said as if he read my mind. "I won't go down _that_ easily." I sighed.

"What's taking Omega so _long_?" I muttered impatiently. Shadow looked down at his watch.

"He's only been gone a few minutes." Suddenly, an enormous door opened in front of us. "Omega's done it," Shadow whispered, getting up from his sitting position. "Let's move on." We made our way through more waves of sand. I got plenty of practice with my sword, since there were so many enemies. At long last, we found Mephiles.

"Mephiles!" Shadow yelled. A black and purple crystallized hedgehog stood on top of a ruin with his back turned to us. He slowly turned his head, revealing red and green eyes. He held a yellow Chaos Emerald in one hand.

"I was expecting you sooner," he said. "As you must know, you're already too late. But there's still time for you to change your mind. Join me, Shadow. Let us teach this world a lesson and rewrite the future." I tugged on Shadow's arm.

"Shadow?" I mumbled. "What's he talking about?" Shadow pulled away from me.

"Don't try to deceive me," he said, glaring at Mephiles.

"What?" Mephiles said, appearing taken back.

"You have no desire for revenge," Shadow accused, pointing his finger at him. "You only crave destruction. Your only lust is to fuel Iblis until there is nothing left of time itself." Mephiles lowered his arms.

"It's a pity, Shadow the Hedgehog," he said darkly. His Chaos Emerald rose into the air. "Truly a shame that you wish to go against me." The Chaos Emerald flashed in the air, and we were all thrown back. I crashed into Rouge, and she pushed me so that I could stay on my feet. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by darkness. Mephiles landed in front of us and summoned about fifty copies of him. They rained down on us, creating glowing purple puddles where they fell. I pulled out my sword and held it out at him, but my hands were shaking. I wasn't sure if it was because of the weight or the fear. Mephiles fled to one corner of the room. With a flash of purple light, a giant black and purple golem stood in his place.

"Hey…" Rouge mumbled. "That doesn't look so good." I swung my sword at its foot, but the sword just phased through.

"SCAN INDICATES THAT ENTITY CONSISTS OF NUMEROUS SHADOWS," Omega chanted. "STILL, I BELIEVE IT CAN BE DESTROYED!" It brought both its fists on the ground.

"Get back!" Shadow yelled as he charged forward and attacked it head on. However, no matter how many times Shadow attacked it, it would reappear again in another corner of the room. Suddenly, Shadow whipped out his Chaos Emerald. It flashed once, and his body glowed red. Almost immediately, the shadows on the ground began to disappear, and Mephiles rose from the center, laughing maniacally. We seized this opportunity to attack him, dodging his purple balls of energy. As Shadow delivered the last blow, Mephiles hit him with one of his energy balls. Shadow threw me the Scepter of Darkness as he fell backwards. "Seal him now!" he yelled.

Mephiles sank into a dark puddle on the ground several feet away from Shadow. I held the Scepter of Darkness in both my (shaking) hands as I stepped towards Mephiles. The Scepter began to glow as it rose into the air. "Come on…" Rouge mumbled, staring fixedly at it. She gave a sigh of relief as the dark shadow on the ground swirled up into the Scepter. Strangely enough, it didn't stop glowing or fall to the ground.

"Something's wrong…" Shadow mused. I turned around, and an expression of panic quickly crossed his face. "Keiko! Get back!" I looked back up at the Scepter, which stopped glowing for a second before glowing again. It spun once, and I quickly jumped back. There was a brilliant flash of white light and the sound of glass shattering. When I could finally see again, a dark shadow was looming above our heads.

"It… it's destroyed!" Rouge stuttered, dumbfounded. The shadow spun several times, revealing Mephiles's head.

"Little human girl," he said to me, almost mockingly. "Did you honestly think you were strong enough to seal _me_? Even if you _were_ strong enough, it would not be possible." He turned to Shadow. "The 'I' of now absorbed your power through your shadow in the past. What may have worked ten years ago no longer does!" He waved his hand, and there was another flash of brilliant white light. I lost my footing, and I fell backwards. The ground crumbled beneath our feet. There was another flash of light, and we were all thrown backwards. Mephiles slowly descended towards the ground. I was the first to recover. I quickly pulled out my sword and charged towards him. Just as I swung my sword at him, he waved his hand and I was sent backwards. "Little human girl," he said again. "You have filled your purpose. There is no need for you anymore."

Rouge was the second to recover. She sprang onto her feet. "'Purpose'?" she asked. "What are you talking about?" Mephiles chuckled darkly.

"Did you think it was by mere happenstance that you came here?" he asked me, completely ignoring Rouge. "Of course not. _I_ brought you here for the sole purpose of slowing Shadow down to such a level that he would be relatively easy to defeat." I just stared at him, my mouth hanging slightly open.

"My brother!" I yelled as soon as I could talk again. "Why did you bring _him_ here, then? He had nothing to do with any of this!" Mephiles chuckled again, and I shivered.

"A failsafe in case that foolish white hedgehog didn't believe me," he explained. "He was supposed to convince the white hedgehog to trust me, or at least to maintain his trust in me." Mephiles waved his hand dismissively. "But the opposite happened. The white hedgehog had his full trust in me, but that idiotic human boy tried to convince him otherwise. He almost did on several occasions." A knot formed in my stomach. The way he used us was just horrifying. We were just pawns in Mephiles's sick game. Mephiles raised his arms into the air, and yellow light flashed in the air above his head. A green and a yellow Chaos Emerald circled above his head. Suddenly, we were surrounded by hundreds of copies of Mephiles, all equally menacing. It's as Omega said: each copy was as strong as the original Mephiles.

"You must realize now that you cannot hope to stop me with your limited power," Mephiles said darkly. Shadow slowly rose to his feet.

"So you say," he retorted.

"It's futile," Mephiles continued. "The world will betray you. Why fight at all? Why risk your life for those who will persecute you later?" I slowly made my way behind Shadow and Omega.

"If the world chooses to become my enemy," Shadow said more to himself than to Mephiles. He put his hand on each of his bracelets, which glowed before falling to the ground. "I will fight like I always have!" He turned to me, Rouge, and Omega. "Stay close to me," he commanded. "Keiko, hang onto Omega." I quickly scrambled onto Omega's back, wrapping both my arms around his shoulders. There was a brilliant flash of light, and we were surrounded by a golden light. And with that, Shadow charged through Mephiles's clones. Each one bounced off as they hit the golden sphere surrounding us. Even though I was with Shadow, Rouge, and Omega and I could somewhat defend myself, I wasn't safe. None of us were safe. We would never be safe, as long as Mephiles, or Solaris in general was alive.

XX

**Whew. That was a really long chapter. I feel really guilty for giving Keiko this humongous chapter and giving Haru a tiny one. So, lots of stuff happening here! Haru doesn't **_**want**_** to go back, Keiko just found out that she and Haru **_**can't**_** go back, and there's still the final story left. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	18. Last Story

_Keiko's POV_

After circling the ruins while running away from Mephiles, we made our way back to the room where we fought him. Rouge and even Shadow were panting slightly and I could not, for the life of me, stop shaking. "Oh my god," I whispered once we were back in the room where we fought Mephiles. "I can't get back home."

"Really?" Rouge snapped back sarcastically. "Mephiles is wreaking havoc who knows where and _you're_ worried about ditching us and going home?"

"It's not only that," I said shakily. "It's just—"

"I mean, come on!" Rouge yelled as if she hadn't heard a word I said. "It's not like you can get back without helping us defeat Mephiles anyway."

"Yeah, but—"

"Will you too just _shut up_?" Shadow snapped at us. His bracelets lay conveniently where he left them, and he slipped them over his wrists as soon as we were quiet.

"WE CANNOT FIGHT," Omega said. "MEPHILES IS PROBABLY TRYING TO DESTROY US FROM WITHIN. IF YOUR FIGHT CAUSES A RIFT BETWEEN US, IT WILL ONLY MAKE MEPHILES STRONGER."

"All right," Rouge mumbled. "Then what are we supposed to do?" She turned to me. "Keiko?"

"I…" I stuttered. "I don't know… I don't know what we're supposed to do now…"

"You mean you don't know _anything_ about this game?" Shadow asked.

"No, Shadow," Rouge answered for me. "You see, because Keiko is so _special_ and _intelligent _and can assume the outcome of possibly _any _game, she didn't feel the need to _look this freaking game up_."

"But…" I mumbled. "But I—"

"It's called _research_, Keiko, research!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"I know!" I said. "I know! I'm sorry!" I sighed. "What do we do about Mephiles?"

"Beats me," Rouge muttered.

"He has three Chaos Emeralds now," Shadow mused. "He should be on his way to Iblis."

"And that would result in…" Rouge added before gasping. "A freaking apocalypse!" I jumped in front of both of them.

"So… why don't we just beat him to Iblis?" I suggested. "Or… Iblis's vessel."

"The Princess…" Shadow mused. "Sonic was with her earlier. If his mission is to protect her, then he should still be with her now."

"And if Sonic's there," Rouge added, "then I'm sure that fox kid and that obnoxious echidna aren't too far away."

"So we have nothing to worry about!" I said cheerfully. "I mean if Sonic's there…" I trailed off because Shadow stared at the ground, looking somewhat distracted. "Shadow? What's wrong?"

"He doesn't have the Chaos Emeralds," he muttered. "He left them behind… but why?" The yellow and the green Chaos Emerald lay innocently on the ground. Shadow bent down to retrieve them, but they suddenly started glowing a blinding white light.

"Wh-what's going on?" I yelled.

"Get close to me, all of you!" Shadow yelled. I ran towards him and grabbed his arm, gripping it with all the strength I could muster. I squeezed my eyes shut to shield them from the blinding white light, and it appeared that Rouge, Omega, and Shadow had similar ideas. When I finally reopened my eyes, we appeared to be in some kind of ruins surrounded by a purple gas. I frantically searched for someone or something I know besides Shadow, Rouge, and Omega, and I succeeded… for the most part. A red-haired girl was crouched over, bawling her eyes out. I could see something blue under her, and I knew that we failed in our mission.

_Haru's POV_

The sun shone above our heads in the now blue sky as Silver and I walked down the ruined streets of what I assumed was Soleanna. I wondered how I was going to break the news to my sister that I wasn't going back home with her. She would kill me if she found out. People lined up on the cracked sidewalks, clapping as we walked down the streets. One little girl ran up to us. "Thank you!" she yelled, hugging Silver's waist. "And you!" she said, turning to me. "You helped!" She hugged my knees before running back to her mother. I laughed nervously.

"Sort of…" I mumbled. Silver squinted up at the sun.

"Blaze…" he mumbled sadly. He sighed and glanced at the floor before staring up at me. "I hope she's ok."

"Yeah…" I replied half-heartedly. Suddenly, a bright white light flooded the streets. People screamed, and Silver and I ducked. Before I knew it we were in this weird purple place, surrounded by the people I used to look up to: Tails, Knuckles, Pinkie, Shadow, Rouge, and Omega. And my sister, but she doesn't count.

"What is this?" Tails asked. "Where are we?" Knuckles and Pinkie stared up at the sky.

"What's going on?" Pinkie asked.

"I was about to ask the same thing," I said. "I mean, come on! The minute we reseal Iblis, something _weird_ has to happen."

"Is this because of that light?" Knuckles asked. Silver frantically searched around him. The Chaos Emerald was gone.

"The Chaos Emerald has disappeared!" he pointed out.

"Really?" Keiko said from across the room. "I totally did _not_ notice that."

"Silver?" Pinkie piped up. Silver looked over at her confusedly.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. He looked over at Keiko, who slung this big ass sword over her shoulder and walked over to the group. "You too. This is all so confusing…"

"It's all because of Solaris," Rouge said. She was standing behind Keiko, Shadow and Omega by her side.

"It seems we were all caught by the spacial distortion," Dr. Eggman said, holding his hands in the air. We looked up, and there was a ball of white light above us. "Iblis' seal has been broken due to Mephiles's manipulation."

"Are you kidding me?" I yelled. "All this work, and Mephiles wins? This isn't fair! Someone rigged the game! Argh! Stupid Sega!"

"Calm down, Haru," Keiko said quietly. "We'll figure something out."

"Have _you_ played this game before?" Rouge asked. I didn't even want to know how she knew about this whole different dimension thing. I shook my head. "Do you know what's going to happen?" I shook my head again. Shadow sighed and hung his head.

"Great," he muttered.

"Everyone…" Tails mumbled. "Look." He pointed towards Sonic lying on the ground with Princess Elise holding him in her arms.

"Sonic?" Pinkie gasped as she ran over to him. Everyone else followed suit.

"You don't think…" Tails mumbled. Poor guy couldn't even finish his sentence.

"Sonic!" Knuckles yelled. Pinkie fell to her knees, put her head in her hands, and cried. Everyone turned away, closed their eyes, hung their heads, or did a combination of the three. Keiko, who was now next to me, did all three.

"This can't be happening," was all she said.

"Mephiles played us all for fools!" Eggman ranted.

"And we still fell for it," Keiko mumbled. "Every single word he said."

"His plan all along was to cause the Princess to be so consumed with despair that she'd cry," Eggman continued. Keiko smiled faintly at Princess Elise.

"You must be pretty strong to not cry for ten years," she complimented her.

"So that's why he wanted me to kill Sonic before," Silver said. He looked extremely pissed off with himself. The bright orb above our heads began to shake violently, along with everything else.

"Solaris!" Eggman yelled. "This creature will consume all existing timelines and time itself will collapse and disappear into nothingness." Shadow stared up at the sky.

"The instability of time caused this space-time rift," Shadow mused. I looked up too.

"Right…" I said. "Whatever that means."

"It won't remain much longer," Eggman continued.

"We've got no time to waste!" Knuckles yelled hurriedly. "We've got to defeat it now!"

"No," Eggman said dejected. "It is a transcended life form that exists in the past, present, and future. Defeating it here, now would do nothing."

"You _worshipped_ this thing?" Keiko practically yelled at Elise.

"I… I didn't know…" Elise stuttered. "I mean… When Father told me never to cry, I thought it was because he wanted Soleanna to have a strong ruler. I didn't think…" Silver put his hand on Elise's shoulder and stared up at the sky.

"No," he denied. "I won't give up. There has to be a way. If you say it exists in the past, present, and future, I'll destroy them all at once."

"And how do you plan to do that?" I asked. "You and Blaze could barely defeat just Iblis on your own. What makes you think you can take on all of Solaris all at once?"

"Certainly, it might have been possible," Shadow said. I finally understood.

"Oh, I get it," I said. "If you, Silver, and Sonic defeat Solaris in the past, present and future, then Solaris will be gone for good!"

"_If_ he was still alive," Shadow continued as if I hadn't said a word.

"No," Keiko said, violently shoving Rouge out of the way to come up front. "Sonic's not dead. I don't believe it for even a second."

"I agree with my sister," I said, raising my hand.

"Why?" Rouge asked. "It's not like you know what's going to happen, so what makes you think—"

"There's no way in _hell_ Sega would kill off their main character," I said.

"Exactly," Keiko agreed. "No Sonic, no Sega, no more video games."

"Yeah, and there's been a _lot_ of Sonic games since this one, so, obviously, Sonic lives!" Everyone blinked at me. "What?"

"Sonic!" Pinkie wailed. "Sonic!" Elise suddenly looked up.

"Sonic…" she mumbled. "I feel… Sonic's presence in the wind. I don't think he's dead yet."

"Thank you!" Keiko and I shouted simultaneously.

"I'm sure of it!" Elise said more confidently. "It's not too late!"

"Of course!" Silver agreed. "Let's call him back with the power of the Chaos Emeralds! Focus your thoughts on using its power to perform this miracle!" Silver glanced over at me. "Collect seven Chaos Emeralds, and a miracle's supposed to happen. Right Haru?" I couldn't help smiling.

"Right," I agreed. Silver ran up to Elise.

"You can do it, Princess," he said. "You were the vessel that was used to seal Iblis. You should be able to use the gems' power to rescue Sonic's soul!"

"I'll do it," she said quietly.

"That… actually makes a lot of sense," Knuckles said.

"Solaris flung the Chaos Emeralds to the distant corners of this distorted world," Eggman explained.

"To collect them all in time, we'll have to split up!" Tails suggested. Pinkie stood up.

"I'll go too…" she said. "Because it's for Sonic!"

"Way to go Pinkie!" I cheered for her. "That's the spirit!" She raised her eyebrows at me.

"It's Amy," she said. "You really suck at names." Keiko sniggered. "So Elise… watch over him." Keiko stood up and made her way over to Shadow, pulling out her sword. _Damn_, that thing was _huge_.

"You stay here," Shadow said.

"I can fight," Keiko insisted.

"Exactly," Shadow replied. "Make sure nothing happens to the Princess."

"If she dies, we're all screwed," Rouge added. Keiko put her sword back into the sheath and walked back over to us.

"You stay too, Haru," Silver said. I nodded. The three of them left, and it was just me, my sister, Princess Elise, and dead Sonic. Elise looked a lot happier now that she knew there was a chance to save Sonic. Keiko paced back and forth, looking bored out of her mind.

"What's with the sword?" I asked, breaking up the awkward silence. Keiko drew to a halt and stared at me for a few seconds.

"We bought it so I could help in the fight against Mephiles," she said. "But it wouldn't have made any difference. We still lost."

"But…" Princess Elise piped up. "At least you and your friends are stronger people now." Keiko scoffed.

"Yeah," she said bitterly. "Right."

"We all managed to defeat Iblis, though," I said optimistically, "so at least _some_ good came out of this."

"Who?" Keiko retorted. "You and Silver? Good for you. Didn't make any difference, though." I sighed and looked up at the white light above us.

"You're right," I whispered. "Blaze sacrificed herself for what? The end of the world? The end of time itself?" I kicked a large rock nearby with all the strength I could muster. I was so mad.

"Calm down, Haru," Keiko said quietly. "We'll figure something out." There was an awkward silence after that.

"Keiko…" I said, breaking up the awkward silence. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Good," she replied, "because I need to talk to you about something too." Suddenly, there was a scream. Princess Elise was now standing on the balls of her feet as those red and black creatures stalked over to her.

"Uh oh," I said. "We've got company." Keiko pulled out her sword.

"Hey!" she yelled. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" That was such a double standard. Those monster things were so tiny, and Elise was so tall. Keiko was _still_ taller than them, but… never mind. I won't even try explaining it. Either way, one of them, the purple one, pounced on her, and she swung her sword at it, silencing it in one swing. When did she get strong enough to even _lift_ that thing, let alone _swing _it? The other monster, the red one, stalked over to her. I couldn't help but notice about six more monsters creeping up behind her. "Haru!" she yelled. "Take the princess someplace safe! I'll take care of things here!" Whoa… when did she get so… _responsible_? I found myself obeying her as I pretty much dragged Elise to a higher level. She just kept swinging at the red and purple monsters that just kept coming and coming.

"Don't you have any robots here or something?" Keiko yelled at Dr. Eggman. Dr. Eggman, too scared to do anything, just stared with his mouth hanging open. After a few minutes, a bunch of Solaris minions lay dead on the floor. Keiko slumped to the floor, dropping the sword next to her. I tugged at Princess Elise's hand and we both came down.

"You ok?" I asked her. She stood up almost immediately.

"That was _awesome_!" she practically squealed. Not the sort of reaction I was expecting. "That was so cool! I never thought I'd be able to do something like that!" I sighed.

"You're kidding me, right?" was all I said. She quirked her eyebrows in confusion.

"No…" she said. "Why?" I sighed and shrugged.

"No special reason." Soon, everyone else came back one by one. Elise laid Sonic on the ground and everyone put their Chaos Emeralds in a circle around him. Elise leaned on her knees and clasped her hands together.

"Oh, Chaos Emeralds," she said, closing her eyes, "gems of miracles. Please heed my call. I wish to save this world. I wish to cleanse my father's sin. And I wish to talk to Sonic once again." She opened her eyes and Sonic, along with the Chaos Emeralds, slowly rose into the air. Elise herself stood up too. "You have given me so many things," she said to Sonic. "Now it is my time to return the favor. I care not what happens to me, but please heed my voice." She placed her hand on top of Sonic's. "Sonic, come back! To me… to us." Then she closed her eyes and leaned in and…

I covered Keiko's eyes with my hand. "Hey!" she yelled, struggling within my grasp. "What are you doing? I want to see!" What's going on?" She struggled some more. There was a bright flash as Elise kissed Sonic.

"Necrophilia and bestiality to the max," I said, my eyes bugging out.

"What?" Keiko yelled. Now everyone else was starting to stare. "That doesn't even make any sense!"

"Seriously, you need to shut up," I told her. The next thing I knew, Sonic descended to the floor, now golden. Elise slumped to the floor to hug Sonic, and he hugged her back. I slowly slipped my hand away from Keiko's eyes, and she jumped up almost immediately.

"Thank you, Elise," Sonic said gently. It seemed almost out of character for him.

"Wait, what just happened?" Keiko yelled. "What's going on?"

"Shut up, you're ruining the moment," I hissed.

"What moment?" Keiko yelled even louder, throwing her arms up. "I didn't see anything!" Everyone was cheering now that Sonic was alive. Shadow, Rouge, and Omega turned towards us. Wow, Keiko was so loud. Shadow and Silver stepped forward towards Sonic. They all nodded to each other, then held their hands at chest level. A golden light emanated from Sonic, and Shadow and Silver began to take on golden hues as well. Then the three of them rose into the air, and Keiko jumped to see them off.

"Good luck, Shadow!" she yelled, waving at them. "Be careful!" I decided to follow her example.

"You too, Silver!" I yelled. I couldn't really see what was going on, but I had a feeling everything was going to be fine. It _is_ a Sonic game after all…

XX

**Well that's got to be the longest chapter I've ever written. I hope you enjoyed it **** There's still one more chapter left, but it'll be a little different from the others. Pay attention to the diction and the syntax and you'll know what I mean. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	19. There and Back Again

**Wow. The last chapter of the entire series. I'm really going to miss this series ****So, here's some things you should know about this chapter. Please, PLEASE read this note first, otherwise the rest of the chapter will be VERY confusing. This entire chapter is written in present tense because everything in the series leads up to this moment. Anyway, enjoy the last chapter!**

XX

_Keiko's POV…_

And that's how we got here. Now we're all just huddled around on the ground of this space-time distortion thingy, bored out of our minds. Haru's still cheering Silver on, yelling things about this Blaze person and how happy she'd be if she could see him right now. Same thing with Tails and Amy, except with Sonic and Silver. Elise is sitting a little ways away. She looks exhausted. Why? It's not like she did anything… Rouge and I got tired of cheering on Shadow a while ago. We both know he'll be fine. At long last, Haru, Amy, and Tails finally sit down with us. Maybe they wore themselves out cheering Sonic, Shadow, and Silver on. There's now an awkward silence. "So Haru, what did you want to talk to me about?" I ask suddenly, breaking up the awkward silence. Haru jerks his head upwards.

"What?" he says dumbly. "Oh…" his face falls. "Yeah… that… You know what, you go first." It takes me a while to remember what I was going to say to him before.

"We can't go back," I whisper. I expect him to start freaking out, but nothing like that happens. He's just sitting there calmly. The corners of his mouth twitch upward, and he bursts out laughing.

"That's it?" he yells in between laughs. "_That's_ what you wanted to talk to me about?" I glare at him and smack him upside the head.

"You idiot!" I yell back. "I just told you we can't get back and you're _laughing _about it? What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing!" Haru yells, still laughing. "Anyway, continue. What were you going to say?" I sigh. Haru's really an idiot.

"Mephiles brought us here in the first place," I say. "He's the reason we're here right now." Haru stops laughing almost immediately.

"Wait, you mean he's responsible for you being there in _all_ the games?" His tone is more serious now. About time.

"No…" I say slowly. "At least, I don't _think _so. I'm pretty sure the reason I got sucked into the other games was because we had a glitchy Game Cube, but—"

"Ohhh… I get it. That X-Box 360 was brand new, and so was that game. So it couldn't have been a glitch that brought us here."

"Exactly. Not to mention, hardly any time passed in our world while I was here during the other games."

"And I still got sucked in, so obviously _some_ time passed after you got sucked in."

"That makes sense… so why were you laughing about this earlier?" Haru looks embarrassed, but kind of nervous and happy at the same time.

"I'm glad we can't get back," he says unexpectedly. My eyes narrow into slits.

"You're _happy_ about this?" I say in a low whisper. Haru shrugs.

"Well… yeah, I mean…" He pauses, as if contemplating what to say. "I was going to ask you if you wanted to stay back here anyway." So _that_ was it. "And even if you didn't want to, I was going to anyway." His face brightens up. "But that doesn't matter anymore!" I sigh. Haru's crazy.

"Right…" I mumble. "Are you going to stay with Silver?"

"Yup," he answers almost immediately. "You're staying with Shadow, right?"

"I guess so…" I say uncertainly. "But you'll live two hundred years in the future. We won't be living in the same time." Realization crosses his face.

"Oh snap, that's right!" he says. "But I don't even know Shadow!"

"And I don't know Silver either."

"Um… excuse me…" I hear Tails say meekly. I turn around, and he's standing right behind me. "Did I hear that right? Are you guys really staying?"

"Yup," Haru says happily. Knuckles walks forward as well.

"Wait, so who are you?" he asks Haru.

"Everyone," I say. Everyone looks up, and I slap Haru on the back. "This is my brother Haru." There's a chorus of "Oh!"'s and "Oh, _that_ Haru!"'s. Haru leans towards me.

"Wait, so they all know me?" Haru whispers to me. "You _told_ them about me?" I smile sheepishly at him.

"Sorry…" I mumble. Soon enough, Sonic, Shadow, and Silver return. "Shadow!" I yell, running up to him. "How did it go?"

"Fine," is all he says.

"Where's Sonic?" Amy asks.

"I'm right here," Sonic says as he descends down next to Shadow. "Whew! Glad that's over!"

"You're not done yet," Shadow reminds him. Sonic scratches the back of his head sheepishly.

"Oh yeah…" he mumbles. "Right. So Elise, will you come with me for a second?" Elise nods happily and takes his hand, and then they both disappear in a flash of light.

"Wh-Where did they go?" Tails stutters.

"To the time when Solaris was just a tiny flame," Shadow explains. "They're going to extinguish Solaris, so none of this will ever happen."

"They're going to… change time?" Rouge asked. Shadow nods. "That's impossible!"

"Probably not," Haru refutes. "This entire universe is pretty crazy."

"I agree," I add.

"So what are we going to do after this?" Knuckles asks.

"Didn't you hear a word he just said?" Rouge yells. "We won't know, because all of this never will have happened!"

"This is all so confusing," Knuckles grumbles, groaning in frustration.

"Well it could be worse," Tails says. Suddenly, the whole room is engulfed in a glowing white light.

"Shadow!" I scream as I grab his arm.

"Keiko!" Haru yells as he grabs my arm. There's something latched onto Haru's other arm, but I never get to see who or what it is. The light floods the room and everything goes black.

* * *

_Haru's POV…_

I'm sitting in Soleanna's town square, and Silver and Blaze are standing on either side of me. We stare up at the fireworks illuminating the sky. "See?" I say to them both. "I told you coming here was worth it."

"It's so beautiful…" Blaze muses.

"It's so nice," Silver adds.

"So who exactly are we meeting, Haru?" Blaze asks. "You said your sister and—"

"Her friends," I finish.

"Her friends being…" Silver prompts.

"Shadow, Rouge, Tails, Knuckles and Amy," I say, counting them off on my fingers.

"Amy's coming too?" Silver asks, his face brightening up a little. I ruffle his quills.

"Yup," I reply. This seems to put Silver in a much better mood. Blaze just smiles sentimentally and shakes her head.

"Come _on_, Shadow, you _promised_!" I hear someone whine. I turn my head to the right and I see Keiko and Rouge heading over here, each yanking on one of Shadow's arms.

"Work, work, work _all_ the time," Rouge chastises him. "Seriously Shadow, you need a break."

"_Everyone_ gets the day off today!" Keiko adds. "But _you_ have to work!"

"Why am I getting the feeling that you're lying to us about work just to get out of this?" Rogue asks him.

"Well it's _not_ going to happen," Keiko says stubbornly. "You're watching the fireworks with us and you're going to _enjoy_ them." Shadow sighs as both Keiko and Rouge push him so that he's sitting next to Silver on the ground.

"Fine," the grumbles.

"Hi everyone!" Tails yells from my left. He's waving his arms over his head. Amy's waving too and Knuckles is just standing there with his arms crossed. Keiko laughs and waves at them, motioning for them to come sit with us. Tails, Amy, and Knuckles run over here and sit down. "This is going to be so great!"

"Hi Silver!" Amy greets.

"H-Hi," Silver stutters, his face turning slightly pink. Amy just giggles and looks up at the fireworks.

"It truly is beautiful," a new voice says.

"Hey!" Knuckles yells. Dr. Eggman stands next to us with his arms crossed, staring up at the fireworks in the sky. "What do you think _you're_ doing here?"

"What?" Dr. Eggman asks. "An evil genius can't take a day off to enjoy the fireworks?"

"Leave him alone, Knucklehead," Rouge snaps at him.

"Why you…" he grumbles. Suddenly the wind picks up as something blue whizzes past us.

"Was that… Sonic?" Tails asks as he regains his composure.

"I think so," Shadow replies. Sonic's now at the other end of the lake. He slows down slightly, and we see him and Princess Elise exchange a smile.

"What the hell was that?" Rouge asks. "It's like they know something we don't."

"So nosy, as usual," Knuckles comments.

"Oh shut up," Rouge snaps at him.

"I don't know…" Keiko drawls out. "I feel like we forgot something really important."

"Just sit and enjoy the fireworks," Blaze advises her. "Worry about that tomorrow." Keiko smiles brightly up at her.

"You're right," she says. "Thanks Blaze!" She stares up at the fireworks and she grimaces. "Oh great. I have school tomorrow."

"What, you didn't finish your homework?" I ask. "Don't be a procrastinator, Keiko."

"I _did_ finish my homework," she tells me. "I just don't want to go to school tomorrow." She looks up at Dr. Eggman. "Ivo, do something." No one really knows why she always calls him by his first name.

"Do what?" he asks.

"I don't know," she replies. "Anything. Blow up a building. Kidnap the princess. Do something totally crazy. That way I won't have school tomorrow."

"Now that's not very nice," Rouge reprimands her, smacking her on the head.

"Ow!" she yells. "What was that for?"

"You don't just ask Dr. Eggman to commit a crime just so you can get out of school!" Tails whines.

"Yeah, whose side are you on anyway?" Knuckles asks. Keiko shrugs.

"I'm on no one's side," she replies. "I'm just here for the ride." Silver grins broadly.

"No worries," he says. "Things are peaceful now. We'll all be fine."

"I sure hope so," Blaze mumbles.

"Way to be pessimistic, Blaze," I say sarcastically.

"Maybe I should go hunt the Master Emerald again," Rouge muses.

"Don't even think about it," Knuckles growls at her.

"I was just kidding," Rouge says, giggling and winking at Knuckles. Knuckles face turns slightly pink.

"Why… Y-You…" he stutters. Keiko bursts out laughing.

"Hey guys!" Sonic greets as he skids to a stop in front of us.

"You're late," Shadow accuses him.

"Always knew how to make an entrance," Knuckles comments.

"Hey, Eggman," Sonic greets as he lays down on his back. "Come to watch the fireworks with us too?" Sonic doesn't wait for an answer. "Ahh, this is the life. No chasing around insane robots, no stopping space stations up in space from crashing to Earth, no evil metal fake me trying to take over the world, no evil alien invasions, no stopping an evil sun god from destroying time itself."

"What was that last part?" Shadow asks.

"Nothing, nothing," Sonic replies nonchalantly. "Just forget about it. Nothing you guys need to worry about."

"What evil sun god?" Blaze persists. She puts a hand to her chest and stared down at it, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"Seriously guys!" Sonic yells. "Just forget it!" Blaze sighs.

"Fine," she gives in reluctantly.

"So what are we going to do after this?" Sonic asks.

"You'll have to stop the doctor again," Shadow tells him.

"Keiko just asked him to do something crazy so that she can get out of school tomorrow," Rouge explains.

"Well I won't do it," Eggman refuses stubbornly. "I don't do commission jobs, Keiko. Not without pay. And I don't come cheap." Keiko just sticks her tongue out at him.

"You people suck," Keiko grumbles, and everyone bursts out laughing. Silver just frowns up at the sky.

"This is bugging me," he mumbles. "What am I forgetting?"

"Trust me," Blaze tells him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You don't want to know."

XX

… **AND IT'S DONE! I'm sorry it took so long to finish. Hopefully I improved my writing style since the first one three years ago. PLEASE REVIEW!**


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